Unpaid Medical Bills and Your Credit Score

Posted by: Sally S. | Jan 08,2008

If you have unpaid medical bills, you can severely damage your credit score. I had some large medical bills recently and worried that I wouldn’t be able to pay them. I have health insurance, but like many insurance policies, it didn’t cover everything. I was very worried that my credit score would be negatively impacted by the bills, since I know that they often report to the credit bureaus.

 

If you don’t pay your medical bills, you risk inflicting serious damage to your credit score. Even if the doctor’s offices, hospitals or clinics don’t report right away, if your unpaid medical bills go to collections, the negative entries will impact your credit score.

 

Two things happened after I received the bills. One, when I called the hospital billing department, they immediately set up a payment plan based on what I could afford. Then, a couple of months after the bill originated, I received a bill from the hospital that offered a one time medical bill settlement option, at a large discount. From talking to my friends in the medical field, I now know this isn’t at all uncommon. In fact, I could have asked to settle my unpaid medical bill at a lesser amount right away, instead of going on a payment plan.

 If you don’t have the option of settling your unpaid medical bills, and you don’t think you can pay them, contact the billing departments listed on the statements. You can probably set up a payment plan to get your medical bills paid off so you don’t damage your credit score. Hospitals and other medical entities will work with you as much as they can to help you out.  

 

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