Dropping medical debts of less than $500 is the final of the three changes to credit bureau reports announced by Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion.
A medical debt grace period extension from six months to twelve. Allowing consumers to tackle medical debt prior to it being included in a credit report for six extra months.
A wipe out of all paid medical debt from credit reports. Paid medical debt used to linger as much as seven years affecting a consumer’s credit score throughout that entire period.
Medical debt under $500 will no longer be used in the calculation of a consumer’s credit score and thus will not be found in a credit report. All three agencies announced their intent to make this change by March 30, 2023.
You might ask, will my propensity scores, used to discern the likelihood of payment from a consumer in collections be affected? The answer to this question is, it depends.
If your current propensity scores take medical debt or credit scores into their equation of collectability, the answer is YES. However, some score companies don’t use medical tradelines or credit scores to discern the collectability of an account because they don’t truly reflect the willingness or ability to pay a debt.
You should find out for sure from your score provider.
If Intelitech is your score provider, then you can rest easy knowing that the removal of all of this medical debt will NOT diminish the value of your scores. The scores include 37 different financial markers, but none are based on healthcare tradelines.