Six things to know:
1. Collectively, those Americans have more than $49 billion in outstanding medical debt in collections, according to the April 29 report from the CFPB. That figure is down from an estimated $88 billion the CFPB found in a March 2022 study.
2. Following the 2022 study, Equifax, Experian and TransUnion said they would no longer report certain medical bills in collections. They also said they would increase the time before medical bills in collections can appear on credit reports to one year. In addition, they announced they would stop reporting medical bills that had been in collections but were resolved and that they would remove medical bills below $500 from credit reports.
3. As of June 2023, about 5% of Americans had unpaid medical bills on their credit reports, down from 14% in March 2022, according to the report. The percentage of older Americans with medical debt dropped from 8.4% to below 3% over that span.
4. Many of the 15 million live in low-income communities and in Southern states, according to the report.
5. The average medical balance on credit reports has increased from $2,000 to more than $3,100. The CFPB said the reporting changes primarily removed smaller balances and the balance of the remaining reported medical bills increased as a result.
6. The credit reporting companies removed many bills, but a majority of medical collections balances remain on credit reports, the bureau said.
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