Do Medical Bills Affect Your Credit?
Medical bills only show on your credit report if they go to collections, and even then they only show on your credit report under specific circumstances. However, the way medical debt on your credit report affects your credit score depends on what credit-scoring model you’re looking at.
- Paid collections for medical debt and debt not sent to collections do not affect your score or credit report.
- Unpaid medical debts sent to collections that are more than a year old and worth more than $500 can show on your credit report and negatively impact your score.
- Unresolved collections information stays on your credit report for up to seven years.
Do medical bills show on your credit report?
Medical bills are only included in your credit report if they go to collections. Paid collections won’t affect your credit score and won’t show on your credit report, but unpaid collections can negatively impact your score and report under certain circumstances.
Over the past few years, there have been quite a few major changes that affect the way medical debt impacts your credit score. In 2022, the three major credit bureaus —Experian, Equifax and Transunion — decided that they would no longer report paid medical debts and they increased the waiting period for medical debts to appear on credit reports from six months to one year. Then, in 2023, they decided to stop reporting medical debts under $500.
As it stands today, any medical debt collections that can be added to your credit report need to meet the following criteria:
- Must have gone unpaid for more than a year
- Must involve a balance greater than $500
Your credit score is a three-digit number that scores your overall creditworthiness. You have multiple credit scores from different scoring models, with FICO Scores and VantageScores being the most popular.
Your credit report is a document that shows your credit history, and has information on things like your credit accounts, late payments, collections accounts and any liens, foreclosures or bankruptcies. You have a credit report with each of the three major credit bureaus, and this information is used to create your credit score.
Lenders can request to see your credit report and your credit score, so the score itself and the information in your reports can affect your ability to qualify for credit.
How unpaid medical debt affects each credit-scoring model
The two credit-scoring models — FICO Score and VantageScore — handle medical debt collection information differently.
The FICO 8 Score, one of the most widely used credit scores, treats medical debt that shows on your credit score report the same as any other debt. This means that unpaid medical debt over $500 that’s sent to collections can negatively impact your score.
Newer scoring models, like the FICO 9 score, weigh medical debt less heavily than other types of debt, meaning that medical debt has a smaller negative impact on your score.
VantageScore no longer considers medical debt as part of its 3.0 or 4.0 credit-scoring models. That means that even if you have medical debt on your credit report, it won’t affect your VantageScore credit score.
In 2024, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) finalized a rule that would have banned medical debt reporting entirely and would have prohibited lenders from considering medical debts when making lending decisions.
The rule was set to go into effect on March 17, 2025, but it faced multiple lawsuits, which argued that the rule overstepped the CFPB’s authority and that it contradicted the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA).
Ultimately, a judge vacated the rule in July 2025, which means that medical debt is still allowed on credit reports and can be considered by lenders.
At the state level, as of September 2025 15 states have also passed legislation to limit or stop medical debt credit reporting, including California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia and Washington.
How to remove medical bills from your credit report
If you have medical debt on your credit report, there are two ways to make it disappear and stop hurting your score:
If there’s an error, file a dispute
Once you get a free copy of your credit report, if you find that the medical debt collection information is there in error, consider filing a dispute with the credit bureau reporting the false information.
Usually, this process involves three steps:
- Contacting the credit bureau: Get in touch with them directly to notify them of the error.
- Submitting evidence: You’ll need to submit documentation to prove that you either paid the bill or it wasn’t a charge belonging to you.
- Following up: The credit bureaus need time to investigate your claim, but it’s important to stay in contact with them, so that you know how it gets resolved.
If the information is correct, pay the debt
Since paid collection information is no longer included in credit reports, the easiest way to get rid of an accurate collection is to pay the debt:
To do this, you’ll need to:
- Figure out how much you can afford: Sit down and look carefully at your budget. Figure out how much you can afford to pay to resolve your debt, either by paying a lump sum or in regular installments.
- Negotiate with the collection agency: Collection agencies would rather collect some money than none at all. They’ll probably be willing to negotiate around what you can afford to pay. Strike an agreement and get it in writing.
- Follow the agreement: Once you have an agreement with the collection agency, follow it closely until your debt is paid off in full.
If left unaddressed, medical debt collection information that’s included on your credit report will stay there for seven years, though its impact will lessen over time.
How to prevent medical bills from hurting your credit
The best way to prevent medical bills from negatively impacting your credit score is to get help early. Follow these tips if you’ve gotten a medical bill that’s too large for you to pay in full.
- Negotiate with your health care provider: You may be able to negotiate your bill to an amount you can afford or set up a payment plan with your health care provider. Just be sure to get the terms of any agreement you reach in writing.
- Work with a medical billing advocate: Medical billing advocates can help you understand medical bills and determine whether the charges are warranted. These services are not always free, but may be worth the cost if you don’t understand your bill.
- Seek financial assistance: If your income is below a certain threshold, you may qualify for financial assistance. Sometimes called “charity care,” these programs are offered at the state level, by nonprofit organizations and by individual health care providers.
- Consider a medical loan: As a last resort, you may want to consider paying the debt with a medical loan. Just be aware that you’ll likely be charged interest and fees on any amount that you borrow.
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