Your questions answered about upcoming changes to medical debt collections credit reporting.
03/02/2023 1:30 P.M.
21 minute read
By John Bedard and Colin Winkler
On March 18, 2021, the three largest national credit reporting agencies (NCRAs)—Equifax, Experian and TransUnion—agreed between themselves to make three changes regarding their policies for credit reporting medical debt collection accounts. Two of those changes took effect on July 1, 2022; the third will take effect on March 30, 2023.
This document explains those changes and provides answers to some frequently asked questions (FAQs) from ACA International members based on information ACA has learned from the NCRAs to date.
JULY 2022 CHANGES
The two changes that took effect on July 1, 2022, were as follows:
- Starting July 1, 2022, the NCRAs stopped including paid medical debt collection accounts on consumer credit reports.
- To implement this policy change, the NCRAs did not ask debt collection data furnishers to make any changes in how they report paid medical debts; rather the NCRAs themselves began to review the paid status reported by the furnisher (i.e., accounts updated with Account Status Code 62, “Paid in full, was a collection account”) and began to suppress those paid medical debt collection accounts so that they would not appear on consumer credit reports.
- Starting July 1, 2022, the NCRAs stopped including unpaid medical debt collection accounts on consumer credit reports until one year (365 days) from the date of first delinquency (DoFD).
- This change increased the gap during which NCRAs do not include unpaid medical debt
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