Is it possible to delete medical bills from your credit report?

Can you get a collections agency to delete medical bills from your credit report?

That’s the aim of our discussion today.

While it might be difficult, it is not impossible to delete medical bills from your credit report even after the account has gone into “collections”, especially when you know the right steps to follow.

Did you know that medical loans, like other types of debt, also affect your credit score?

While credit rating systems have changed over the years, medical bills still affect your credit score.

Plus, unpaid medical bills can affect your credit score for years.

Your credit score could also be the key to getting a loan in times of emergency.

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For example, when a person runs into a medical problem and they need vast sums of money to fix it, a loan might be your only available option and you don’t want your credit score to sabotage your chances of getting an emergency loan.

Having a less than “good” credit score will hamper your chances of getting approved for mortgages and other loan facilities like car loans and insurance premiums.

Most new lenders will require you to get your creditor to delete medical bills from your credit report before granting a request for a new loan.

So if you have any unpaid medical bills in your credit file, then you’d need to delete medical bills from your credit report, or else your credit score continues to suffer.

To understand how to delete medical bills from your credit report, we’ll look at.

1. How do medical bills affect my credit report?
   
2. Why you should get the creditor to delete medical bills from your credit report?
   
3. How to delete medical bills from my credit report.
   
4. How to delete medical bills from my credit report by a legal dispute.
   
5. How to prevent medical bills from showing up in my credit report.

How Do Medical Bills Affect My Credit Report;

When you miss payments on your medical bills, most healthcare providers will wait for at least 90-180 days before they contact a debt collections agency and hand over your debt to them.

The debt collection agency would then go about getting you to pay the money.

Fortunately, in 2017, the major credit bureaus changed their policy on medical bills.

The credit bureaus will now have to wait for at least 180 days after the loan has become delinquent before adding it to your credit file.

Once added to your credit file, it becomes difficult to get the credit bureaus to delete medical bills from your credit report.

According to some experts, the largest single cause for declaring bankruptcy in the United States is medical bills.

Also, almost 20% of the American population has medical debts that they haven’t paid.

People will usually go into medical debt without even having a plan for how they intend to pay back, and it’s mostly not their fault.

It is hard and nearly impossible to suffer from health issues or watch family members suffer from health issues and not do anything.

So most times, medical emergencies make people take riskier loans.

While unpaid medical bills aren’t as serious as other types of bills when they go into your credit report, they can remain there for up to 7 years even after you’ve cleared the debt. 

Why You Should Get The Creditor to Delete Medical Bills From Your Credit Report;

Many states have their “Statute of Limitations” which specifies the time frame in which you can be legally forced to pay up your bills.

When a statute of limitations passes, the law cannot force you to pay back the loan.

Most statutes of limitations on debts are within three to six (3-6) years.

After which, the law can’t force you to pay back the money you owe.

While you might get away without paying the bill, the damage done to your credit score is not worth it. 

A medical bill on your credit report will stay on your report for 7 years and that is a very long time to have negative information on your credit report. 

Many new lenders will ask you to get your previous creditor to delete medical bills from your credit report before they can grant your loan request.

Also, it might be better to pay the loan even if it has entered your credit report, as you don’t want to risk getting sued in a court where the Statute of Limitations hasn’t passed.

However, if your present financial situation is very dire and you can’t afford to pay back the loan, it is better to call the health care provider or the collections agency and try to negotiate a payment plan or even a “balance forgiveness” to get the creditor to delete medical bills from your credit report

While it’s unlikely that, you’ll get balance forgiveness, it is better you call and negotiate a solution with the healthcare provider or creditor rather than allowing the payment to go into collections and then, start looking for ways to get the collections agency to delete medical bills from your credit report.

How To Delete Medical bills from your credit report;

It isn’t advisable to leave any negative information like unpaid medical bills on your credit file, doing nothing to delete medical bills from your credit report.

While it isn’t easy, it is also not impossible to get the creditor to delete medical bills from your credit report. Here are a few steps to delete medical bills from your credit report.

• Ask your insurance provider to pay the “collections” agency; Now, while paying the collection agency directly is good, it has a very little chance of getting the collections agency to delete medical bills from your credit report.
  
  A much better option is to ask your insurance provider to pay the collections agency, as this has a much better chance of getting the credit bureaus to delete medical bills from your credit report.
  
• Disputing the medical bill; Sometimes, errors can show up in your credit report. And it is important to go through your credit report thoroughly and check for any errors.
  
  If you find any errors, then you can set up a legal dispute to get the credit bureau to delete medical bills from your credit report. Just file the dispute with all the major credit bureaus.
  
• Contact a credit repair agency; You can also hire the services of a credit repair agency to help you delete medical bills from your credit report.
  
  Getting professional help might be an easier way to delete medical bills from your credit report, as these professionals can help you set up a payment plan to repay the debt.
  
  Also, a professional credit repair agency might help you negotiate a deal with the collections agency where they’ll delete medical bills from your credit report for full or partial repayment of the loan.
  
• Negotiate a Pay-to-delete; This option involves agreeing to a deal with the collections agency or the present creditor where the creditor will delete medical bills from your credit report for repayment of the loan.
  
  Please note that while “pay-to-delete” agreements are legal, the creditor isn’t obliged to agree to it, even after you’ve paid the debt.
  
  However, if you can delete medical bills from your credit report by negotiating a successful “Pay-to-delete”, get all agreements in writing to avoid any errors showing up in your credit report later on.
  
• Ask for debt forgiveness; You might delete medical bills from your credit report by getting your health care provider to give you a “balance forgiveness”.
  
  When negotiating for balance forgiveness, it is good practice to write a goodwill letter explaining your current financial, and perhaps medical, situation to the collection agency.
  
  This will make it likely that the creditor will delete medical bills from your credit report.
  
• Set up a monthly bill payment system;  While you might not get the collections agency to delete medical bills from your credit report, you can set up a monthly bill payment system for all your health bills.
  
  This will prevent future medical bills from entering your credit reports and reduce the likelihood of trying to get your healthcare provider to delete medical bills from your credit report.

How to delete medical bills from my credit report by a legal dispute

If you believe that your medical bills have gone to collections by mistake, then you would need to delete medical bills from your credit report.

The best way to do that is to contact the credit bureau and file a dispute with them.

If the bill has been paid by insurance, or the bill is less than the required 180 days minimum, then you can file a dispute with the credit bureau to get them to delete medical bills from your credit report.

Here is a detailed process of how to use a legal dispute to get the credit bureau to delete medical bills from your credit report;

1. Collect all necessary information; Collect all the documents that show the debt has been paid or that the medical bills in your credit report are an error.
   
   If you don’t have all the required information to prove the error, then you might not get the credit bureaus to delete medical bills from your credit report.
   
2. File a formal dispute; After the first step, you can file a formal dispute.
   
   Check your credit reports from all three credit bureaus and also file the dispute with all three major credit bureaus.
   
3. Stay in contact; Stay in contact with the credit bureaus and be prepared to provide any additional information they might ask for as that’ll help quicken the resolution of the dispute and get the credit bureaus to delete medical bills from your credit report.

How To Prevent Medical Bills From Showing Up in My Credit Report

Considering how difficult it is to get a credit bureau to delete medical bills from your credit report, it is better to prevent medical bills from showing up in your credit report. Here are a few simple steps;

• Check up on your insurance provider; Make sure you understand the details of your insurance policy.
  
  Also, check up on the company to make sure it is paying the bills agreed to in your insurance plan.
  
  This can help prevent the stress of asking a collections agency to delete medical bills from your credit report.
  
• Set up a fundraiser for medical emergencies; You can set up a crowdfund and ask family and friends to donate some money to you.
  
  While this method is not reliable, it might come through in times of an emergency.
  
• Negotiate large bills; If you find yourself with a bill that you can’t pay, then it’s better to call your healthcare provider and negotiate a reduction or a payment plan.
  
  Calling a healthcare provider and negotiating a reduction is better than calling that same healthcare provider and asking them to delete medical bills from your credit report, so be proactive and shoot before the loan goes into collections.
  
• Consider getting professional help; There are medical billing advocates who can help you negotiate a payment plan on your behalf.
  
  This might be another sure way to prevent future situations where you are asking the health care provider to delete medical bills from your credit report.

Conclusion

Finally, if you’ve been wondering how to delete medical bills from your credit report, then this post is just for you.

While it might be difficult to delete medical bills from your credit report, it isn’t impossible.

Follow the guidelines carefully, and when in doubt, you can always come back to it.