Does Medical Debt Affect Your Credit Score? (New 2026 Rules)
The rules around medical debt and credit scores changed significantly in 2025 — and most people don’t know about it yet. If you have medical debt on your credit report, you may have more protection than you realize.
The New Rules (Effective 2025)
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) finalized rules that fundamentally changed how medical debt is treated on credit reports:
- Medical debt under $500 can no longer appear on credit reports at all
- Paid medical collections must be removed from credit reports immediately
- Medical debt in collections can no longer be used in credit scoring models under new FICO and VantageScore versions
The three major credit bureaus — Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion — agreed to remove all medical collections under $500 and all paid medical collections from credit reports.
How Much Can This Improve Your Credit Score?
The CFPB estimates that removing medical debt from credit scoring will increase affected consumers’ credit scores by an average of 20 points. For consumers with significant medical collections, the improvement can be 40–100+ points.
What to Do If Medical Debt Is Still on Your Report
- Pull your credit reports from all three bureaus at AnnualCreditReport.com
- Identify any medical collections
- Check if the balance is under $500 — if so, dispute it as it should have been removed
- Check if it’s already paid — if so, dispute it for removal
- For larger unpaid medical collections, check if the debt is past the statute of limitations in your state
How to Dispute Medical Collections
Send a written dispute to each bureau where the collection appears. Include your name, address, the account in question, and the reason for dispute (e.g., “This medical debt is under $500 and should be removed per CFPB rules”).
Bureaus have 30 days to investigate and respond. If they verify the debt incorrectly, you can escalate to the CFPB complaint portal at consumerfinance.gov/complaint.
The Bottom Line
Medical debt is increasingly being recognized as an unfair measure of creditworthiness — people don’t choose to get sick. The new rules give you real tools to protect your credit from medical bills. Use them.
