Medical bill garnishment/credit report

[CountryGirl28]

Here’s a question on a new topic we just became aware of. It seems there is a wave of garnishment lawsuits by hospitals against patients who can’t pay E R deductibles right away. We know the latest FICO rules allow paid medical collections to be removed from credit reports upon request. However, a court case, such as this article on kake.com, would seem to fall in the public information area, like a bankruptcy. The article was less than a week old. But we are wondering if anyone has any info, insight. We try to help renters online with advice, including credit. (Helps lease apps get approved.) We would like to have valuable information to share. Any insights much appreciated:))

[Anonymous]

this is a income tax forum,  not a credit score forum.  nor can we offer legal advice.   if you think you have a valid dispute with a reporting agency contact them to see how to proceed

[tagteam · Accepted solution]

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@CountryGirl28 wrote:

Here’s a question on a new topic we just became aware of. It seems there is a wave of garnishment lawsuits by hospitals against patients who can’t pay E R deductibles right away. We know the latest FICO rules allow paid medical collections to be removed from credit reports upon request...

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Twofold problem: (1) FICO made a (unilateral) decision to allow medical collections to be removed from just one of their scoring models, and (2) The lawsuits are public records (they were filed in public courts as opposed to private collection matters).

I understand that there needs to be a solution, but I suspect you are going to be left with either trying to convince the credit agencies/analytics companies to not report or otherwise use the data or convince the lessors (landlords) not to consider the data when making a decision whether or not to rent to prospective tenants.

[CountryGirl28]

Yes, that seems to be the whole thing. They have to hope the landlord won’t hold it against them, after payment. This is another ball game, once it goes to court. Thank you...:))