Recently, the Credit Reporting Bureaus Experian, TransUnion and Equifax announced a joint initiative that will significantly change credit reporting standards and rules regarding all medical debt collection data. The Meduit Compliance team wants to ensure that our clients understand the potential impact and timing of the announced changes.
The chart below, issued by the bureaus, breaks down the current changes and the effective dates of each item. All notices have advised that additional communications outlining the steps required for compliance will be forthcoming. Meduit’s Compliance team is diligently working with our operations team to update our internal policies and procedures in light of the changes as well as assessing the impact of these changes on future collections. Our team will keep our clients closely advised on all fronts.
| Initiative | Who Is Impacted? | Furnisher Action | Effective Date |
| CRAs will not display paid medical debt collection accounts | Collection agencies and debt buyers | No changes required. Continue to report the paid medical collection with a status code 62. The CRAs will then remove the paid medical collection. | 7/01/2022 |
| Do not report medical debt collection amounts less than 365 days old | Collection agencies and debt buyers | Do not report medical debt collection accounts (as defined by Creditor Classification Code 92) until they are at least 365 days past the Date of the First Delinquency with the original creditor that led to the account being sold or placed for collection. [Note: existing rule is changed from 180 days to 365 days] | 7/01/2022 |
| Do not report medical debt collection accounts under a predefined minimum threshold (will be at least $500 and published later this year) | Collection agencies and debt buyers | Do not report medical debt collection accounts (as defined by Creditor Classification Code 02) under the predefined minimum threshold (will be at least $500 and published later this year) | 3/30/2023 |
For more information, please contact Jill Cloys, Meduit Director of Compliance, at Jill.Cloys@meduitrcm.com or call: 317.284.6480.