Medical bills have always been a burden in the economic market of our country. It is highly expensive to fall ill these days.
A normal knee-cap replacement can cost us somewhere around $50,000. So, incurring medical debt is not a big deal.
And that’s not all. The credit reports start to burn red with all the unpaid debt accounts in it!
But things are about to be a little different!
From 15th September 2017, medical bills are bothering us a bit less.
The consumers are now given 180 days time to decide how they are going to pay their medical debt.
You have a decent number of months in hand to dispute your debt with the hospitals, medical institutions, and your insurance company.
The scenario till date / What is the problem with huge medical bills?
In our country, making a visit to a good hospital means compromising your financial standing to a huge extent. Prices of medicines, doctor’s fees, hospital charges, even those paper cups in which your pills come, all adds up to a mountain size amount.
Elizabeth Rosenthal, a medical practitioner and a journalist, who is also the author of “An American Sickness” says “We pay 2 or 3 times what other countries pay for healthcare, without getting better results, which is the key here”.
This is the sole reason that’s making us angry to look at our medical bills.
Our country, on the other hand, is taking no steps against this huge medical cost! The reason being that our nation doesn't allow foreign competition in the field of pharmaceuticals and health industry.
What makes things more harassing is that the medical institutions don’t handle the debt accounts themselves; instead, they pass it to the collection agencies!
How medical debts are affecting us:
The first thing that needs to be done after coming home from a hospital is call a medical debt advocate and explain the whole situation with every minute details.
At least that’s what usually people do who have suffered from medical debts.
We become financially ill! We then have to call the insurance company, see how much they can cover and ask them to negotiate with the hospitals.
But no matter what steps we take, within one month, the account starts getting reported to the credit bureaus, and we can do nothing but see our credit scores drop dramatically.
Medical debt has become a prime reason in the US for people filing bankruptcies. To avoid such a condition, many of us are traversing borders for affordable medical treatment.
You can’t deny that the price of healthcare is increasing rapidly in our country. Even if you compare with our neighbors like Canada, Panama, or the other leading countries like Japan, the medical costs are a lot lower than what it is in the US.
But with the introduction of new credit scoring models, namely FICO 9 and VantageScore 4.0, in 2017, things have become a bit different. The credit bureaus are going to be lenient in reporting your debts and calculating your credit score!
How we can be benefitted
The credit bureaus have acted on this notion that medical bills cannot decide a person’s creditworthiness. This is an emergency.
If you start defaulting on your mortgage payments or car loans, then it’s purely your fault. But, medical debts fall under unplanned expenses.
So wrap up your medical bills and figure out a suitable solution to repay them. You can easily take time to negotiate with your insurance company.
As already mentioned, the credit bureaus have taken a real good step for people who have pounding medical bills.
They are offering you 6 months to decide how and when you are going to pay your medical bills. But, if you don't pay back within this period, you can expect your credit scores to fall down.
So, be wise and utilize this time fruitfully. Immediately after you receive your first medical bill, call your insurer and negotiate the amount. Don’t waste much time. If you can already clear a good amount in these 6 months, you may see your credit score rise way up!
Just to summarize, you now got 180 days to deal with your medical bills, even though our government is doing nothing to decrease the medical cost.