Preventative Measures, Keeping Medical Bills From ... - Bankruptcy

As hospitals and other medical providers develop quick trigger fingers when reporting medical debt, there are ways in which you as a patient can prevent medical bills from hurting your overall credit score, according to The New York Times.

More patients are facing the difficulty of paying their medical bills, especially as more Americans are subjected to more of the share than in the recent past.

About 10 years ago, medical providers collected no more than 8 percent of their revenue from patients. According to The New York Times, that number is now closer to 20 or 30 percent of revenue stemming from the actual patients in some markets.

Hospitals and medical providers are turning your debt over to collection agencies faster than ever before, causing an alarming trend of ?dings? on subsequent credit reports.

Many times, medical bills can be convoluted with errors. Over billing, insurance providers under-covering patients and long wait times for answers pertaining to your medical bills are all reasons why your credit score can be negatively affected.

This maniacal web of a mess that is created is hard to figure out and uncover. Adding fuel to the fire, all of these factors are time sensitive and if they are not dealt within a certain period of time, your credit score drops. Consumers have 30 days to dispute any debt, especially debt related to medical bills.

Consumers can request the credit bureaus to eliminate the ?delinquent? debt from their credit reports if the debt is invalid.

Recently, collection agencies have come under heavy fire for their practices within the medical debt collection industry.

Accretive, one of the nation?s largest debt collection agencies that deals with medical bills, was chastised for their reportedly aggressive tactics in recovering debt from medical bills. It was reported by The New York Times that the company would pursue medical debt from patients that were convalescing after surgery or waiting in emergency rooms while still at the hospitals where they received treatment.

Bloomberg News reported that the company strongly denies those claims.

Claims ranged from patients being pressured before treatments were issued to bedside pressure after treatments were administered.

Whether the report is accurate or not, the fact is that collection agencies will go to great lengths to collect their debt for their clients. Experts say to protect yourself by checking your credit score on a regular basis and to dispute any errors or debt reports that are inaccurate.

A 2010 Commonwealth fund report stated that an estimated 9.2 million out of the 20 million people contacted over an unpaid medical bill were contacted because of a billing mistake.

Experts say that by doing your due diligence when it comes to medical bills, you can avoid unnecessary marks on your credit score.

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