(NNPA)—Anyone who has been to an emergency room, out-patient clinic or undergone a series of medical tests knows how it feels to receive confusing bills from providers you never knew were treating you. The effects of so many bills and their high costs can almost make a person sick a second time—just from learning how much their medical care costs.
Each year, 43 million Americans have unpaid medical debt that adversely affects their credit, says the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Nationwide, one out of every five credit reports show overdue medical debt and accounted for 52 percent of all debt appearing on credit reports. Over the past year, the number of debt collection complaints CFPB received surpassed those of both mortgages and credit cards.
Beyond confusing bills, CFPB learned through investigating these complaints that two frequently-cited concerns were the lack of standard practices and deliberate failure to notify consumers that detrimental entries were added to the personal credit reports.
About Post Author
