BEAUMONT, Texas — No one ever plans to end up in a hospital bed, but sooner or later it happens to the best of us. And getting those bills in the mail a few weeks later extends the pain.
Today, millions of Americans’ paid medical debt disappeared from their credit reports.
That's great news because medical bills are the leading cause of bankruptcy in America. But this change comes with stipulations.
Half of Americans carry medical debt, according to data from Debt.com.
Rachel Bertrand was born with a rare brain disorder and has undergone seven surgeries.
"I woke up and I couldn't move one of my arms my leg. I couldn't stop vomiting from the pain I was having in my head," Bertrand said. "They saw that I had a brain bleed and one of my aneurysms had ruptured."
Needless to say, lifesaving treatments are expensive.
"A lot of medical debt ends up in collections, and what that meant for people is they weren't able to get loans, so car loans, house loans, things like that," Patient advocate Christine Van Haren said.
Van Haren said until today, once your medical debt went to collections, it would stay on your credit report for seven years after you paid it off.
"As of today, that has all changed,” Van Haren said.
The change that took effect today is three-pronged.
Paid medical debt will be dropped from your credit report immediately.
New unpaid medical debt won't appear for one year, where it used to be for six months. And medical bills under $500 won't show up in collections at all.
"70% of medical debt will fall off of credit reports, which is going to be a lot that's going to affect a lot of people," Van Haren said.
As good as this sounds, Van Haren said it doesn't just dissolve medical debt.
"The key here is really paid medical debt. If you still have medical debt in collections that has not been paid after 12 months, it will show up on your credit report,” Van Haren said.
For people like Bertrand, help is still far off.
"I don't have $100,000 and that would help me a lot because I do what I can to pay,” Bertrand said.