Can Medical Bills Affect Your Credit Report?

The economy of today is driven by borrowing and debt. That can be a good thing if you need an immediate line of credit for a specific purchase or just an easier cash flow. However, managing all the aspects of your various types of debt is not easy.

For instance, medical bills that you don’t pay can harm your borrowing power and affect your credit rating. If you want to purchase a property later on, this can be a problem. That’s why we’ll get into the specifics of how medical bills affect your credit report.

Medical Bills and Credit

When it comes to credit reports and scoring, the single most decisive factor is your payment history. In other words, it’s important to pay all of your bills on time. Large healthcare bills can turn into a problem if you hold off on paying them.

Unpaid bills can lead to long back-and-forth with insurers and providers. If the debt ends up in collections, it can affect your credit.

It should be noted that a medical bill has no direct effect on your credit score unless someone reports it to a credit bureau. Hospitals and doctors rarely report unpaid bills to the bureaus themselves.

However, medical bills can still count among important credit score factors. Healthcare providers may sell or hand off unpaid bills to collection agencies, and collection agencies can report those accounts to the credit bureaus.

Consumer Protection

Luckily, not all debt is treated the same way. The three national credit bureaus, Equifax, Experian and TransUnion, now handle medical collections more gently than other debt.

According to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's guidance on medical debt, the bureaus wait one year before an unpaid medical bill can appear on your report. That waiting period used to be six months.

This gives people time to pay the bill or sort out disputes with their insurer or provider. During that year, the medical debt should not show up on your credit report.

The bureaus also no longer report paid medical collections. Once a medical collection is paid, it should come off your report, while other paid collections can stay for up to seven years.

Since April 11, 2023, medical collections under $500 are also left off credit reports. This does not cover a medical bill you put on a credit card, which counts as credit card debt.

These policies reflect a simple idea. An illness or an accident can happen to anyone, so medical bills say less about how someone manages money than a missed mortgage or credit card payment.

Newer scoring models agree. FICO Score 9 and newer VantageScore models give unpaid medical collections less weight than other collections.

A federal rule that would have removed nearly all medical debt from credit reports was finalized in January 2025. A federal court in Texas vacated that rule on July 11, 2025, according to the CFPB's Regulation V rule page. The bureaus' voluntary policies above still apply, and some states have their own limits.

Issues With Medical Debt

Naturally, medical debt doesn’t disappear on its own. It’s still money you owe, and it can affect your borrowing at some point. A medical collection over $500 that stays unpaid for more than a year can show up on your report and lower your score.

Even a small drop in your credit score can affect whether you get approved for a loan. It can also affect the interest rate you pay.

Also, some employers check credit reports when hiring, especially for jobs that involve handling money. They usually need your written permission to do so.

Plus, many lenders still use older FICO versions, where medical collections count the same as other collections.

Once a hospital or doctor’s office sends your bill to a collection agency, expect letters, calls and emails asking you to pay.

Much like personal loans and credit cards, unpaid medical bills are civil debt. Not paying them is not a crime, but a creditor or collection agency can sue you in civil court. If they win, a court may allow wage garnishment or a lien on your property.

Check your credit reports for free at AnnualCreditReport.com. If you see a paid medical collection, one under $500 or one less than a year old, you can dispute it with the credit bureau.

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Conclusion

Medical bills only hurt your credit if they reach collections and get reported. Paying or disputing them early, and checking your reports, is the best way to protect your score.

If you can’t afford a bill, ask the provider about a payment plan or financial assistance before it goes to collections.

Sources

• Have medical debt? Anything already paid or under $500 should no longer be on your credit report, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
• Consumer Reporting (Regulation V), Consumer Financial Protection Bureau