Medical Debt Attorney - Stop Illegal Billing

Effective January 1, 2022, the No Surprises Act is a federal law that bans "surprise billing" — the practice of charging patients out-of-network rates for care they reasonably believed was covered. Before this law, a single emergency room visit could generate thousands of dollars in unexpected bills from doctors you never chose.

The No Surprises Act protects you in three key situations:

Emergency Services

You cannot be billed at out-of-network rates for emergency care — regardless of whether the hospital or the individual provider is in your insurance network. This includes the emergency room visit itself, as well as any services provided as part of the emergency (lab work, imaging, anesthesia) until you are stabilized and can be safely transferred.

Out-of-Network Providers at In-Network Facilities

If you go to an in-network hospital or surgical center, out-of-network providers working at that facility — such as anesthesiologists, radiologists, pathologists, and assistant surgeons — cannot send you a surprise balance bill. You can only be charged your in-network cost-sharing amount (copay, deductible, coinsurance). The provider and your insurer must resolve any payment disputes between themselves through an independent dispute resolution (IDR) process.

Good Faith Estimates for Uninsured Patients

If you are uninsured or paying out of pocket, healthcare providers must give you a Good Faith Estimate of expected charges before scheduled services. If the final bill exceeds the estimate by $400 or more, you have the right to dispute it through a patient-provider dispute resolution process.

Medical debt is treated differently than other types of debt on your credit report. In 2022, the three major credit bureaus (Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion) adopted voluntary policies that provide significant protections for consumers with medical debt. Additionally, the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) provides federal legal remedies when credit bureaus or data furnishers report inaccurate medical debt information.

The 1-Year Waiting Period

Under the credit bureaus' voluntary policy, unpaid medical debt cannot appear on your credit report until at least 365 days after it first becomes past due. This gives you time to resolve insurance claims, negotiate with providers, and dispute billing errors before the debt can affect your credit score.

Paid Medical Debt Must Be Removed

Once a medical collection is paid or settled, the credit bureaus will remove it from your credit report. Unlike other types of paid collections — which can remain on your report for up to seven years — paid medical debt should disappear entirely.

Medical Debts Under $500

Medical collection accounts under $500 are no longer reported by the three major credit bureaus. This protects consumers from having relatively small medical bills — a single copay or lab fee — devastate their credit.

State-Level Protections

Several states — including California, Colorado, New York, and others — have enacted their own laws restricting medical debt credit reporting. Some go further than the voluntary industry rules. Our attorneys evaluate every case for both federal and state claims.

Debt collectors frequently violate federal law when pursuing medical debts. Medical bills are often confusing and poorly documented, which makes them ripe for abuse. Here are the illegal tactics we see most often.

Illegal Balance Billing

Under the No Surprises Act, providers and collectors cannot bill you for the balance between what an out-of-network provider charged and what your insurer paid — when the care was emergency or at an in-network facility. If a collector is pursuing a balance bill that violates this law, the debt itself may be invalid.

Collecting Before Insurance Resolves

Some providers send bills to collections while insurance claims are still being processed or appealed. This is premature and potentially illegal — the FDCPA prohibits collecting debts that are not actually owed, and a debt that insurance may cover is not yet established. You have the right to send a debt validation letter demanding they prove you actually owe the amount claimed.

Threatening Lawsuits They Can't File

Collectors sometimes threaten to sue over medical debts that are past the statute of limitations, or debts they lack the documentation to prove in court. Under the FDCPA, threatening legal action the collector cannot or does not intend to take is illegal. If you've been served with a lawsuit, learn how to respond to a debt collector lawsuit.

Revealing Medical Information to Third Parties

The FDCPA restricts third-party disclosures — a collector cannot tell your employer, family members, or neighbors about your debt. When the debt is medical, disclosing the nature of the debt can also implicate HIPAA privacy protections. If a collector revealed details about your medical treatment while trying to collect, you may have claims under both the FDCPA and state privacy laws.

Harassment and Abuse

Non-stop phone calls, calls at unreasonable hours, profanity, threats to garnish wages without a court order, and other forms of debt collection harassment are illegal under the FDCPA — regardless of whether the underlying debt is valid.

Multiple federal laws work together to protect consumers from illegal medical debt collection and credit reporting. Understanding these laws is essential to knowing your rights.

Our attorneys have handled thousands of consumer protection cases involving illegal debt collection and credit reporting errors. Here's what we do for medical debt clients.

When a medical debt collector or credit bureau violates your rights, federal law provides several categories of damages.

If the same collector or credit bureau is doing this to you, they're likely doing it to thousands of other consumers too. In some cases, we pursue class action claims to maximize accountability and recovery.

For more answers, visit our frequently asked questions page.

This page constitutes attorney advertising. The information provided is for general informational purposes and does not constitute legal advice. Every situation is unique — contact Hyslip Legal for a free consultation to discuss your specific circumstances. Submitting a contact form does not create an attorney-client relationship. Information submitted is not confidential until an engagement agreement is signed.