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We’ve answered this question in a previous post.  Here it is below:

It will take multiple steps to help you eliminate your medical debt. But here are six strategies you can use to knock down those hospital bills and improve your credit rating.

Examine Everything

Start by going over all your medical bills with a fine-tooth comb. Question charges that seem inflated (like that $20 bottle of aspirin). Also, ask for explanations from your healthcare providers regarding invoices for services you don’t recognize or understand. Simply forcing them to account for everything may result is certain charges being waived or reduced.

Find Out About State Freebies

Lots of states offer their residents free mandatory coverage or health insurance with small co-pays and low deductibles. If any of your treatment should have been covered by a state program, see if state resources can fill the gap and pay what you’ve been charged.

Ask Directly for Discounts

Ask the hospitals, clinics and healthcare professionals that serviced you whether or not you qualify for any discounts, charity, or write-downs of your total bill outstanding. Don’t be ashamed to let the hospital(s) know about your entire financial predicament. They may be more lenient if they know that you’re not working, are not insured, have lots of other debts, are a single mom, etc.

Request a Payment Plan

If you can talk to a kindly, flexible billing representative/hospital administrator, or even better, the doctor(s) who treated you, ask if you can get on a payment plan. Try to stretch out the plan for as long as reasonable in order to give yourself time to pay off all that you owe. If they agree to discount $2,000 of your original $5,000 in bills, then you’ll have $3,000 remaining to pay off over time. If you can commit to pay that off in two years, that means you’ll have to pay $125 a month ($3,000 divided by 24 months).

Negotiate to Improve Your Credit Rating

Also, while you are negotiating, request upfront that the hospital agree to delete all negative references to your credit files. They may only do it once you’ve completed your repayment plan. But that’s better than letting the late payment or collection information sit on your credit reports for seven years. Get any agreements in writing.

Get a Medical Advocate

Don’t give up on negotiating down that medical debt, or to improve your credit standing. Sometimes you have to go to multiple people or write numerous letters. But it will be worth it in the end if you can rid yourself of thousands of dollars of medical bills. If your own efforts don’t get you anywhere, get help from a third party, such as Access Project (http://www.accessproject.org) or Medical Bill Advocates (http://www.billadvocates.com). For those with hefty hospital bills, The Access Project’s Medical Debt Resolution Program can guide you through the maze of negotiating with insurance companies, medical providers and public programs to resolve your medical debt.

Related articles

• How to Handle Overdue Hospital Bills (ybpguide.com)

This is, unfortunately, a bad case of identity theft. You need to protect yourself and your son in a number of ways, starting by pulling your most recent credit reports, examining them for any other accounts that you may not know about, and then putting a credit freeze on your credit reports. Read this article for more information about how a credit freeze can protect your credit rating.

http://askthemoneycoach.com/2010/01/what-is-a-credit-freeze-and-how-can-i-use-one-to-protect-my-credit/

Additionally, if you know who made those claims, you should report that person to the proper authorities — both the hospital and healthcare provider, and the police. The accounts you mentioned are in collections that wound up on your credit report. So I imagine, the identity thief is probably someone you know, love or trust. If this person was able to use your son’s information, they presumably had knowledge of your home address and – more importantly – sensitive data such as your social security number. Notify the hospital or clinic where the services were performed that it was definitely not your son. Then ask if you (or the attorney you mentioned hiring) can investigate the hospital’s records related to the medical claims you’ve been billed for. The identity thief likely filled out some forms, and you’ll be able to see if they did, in fact, list your social security number and other personal information of yours. This may give you a clue into who had access to such private information about you. Even if it turns out that your information was merely misappropriated by a complete stranger, you should dispute this information with
the credit bureaus. Let them know that you were the victim of identity theft and the credit bureaus (Experian, Equifax and TransUnion) may remove those collection accounts. Read this post for the websites for filing an online dispute with the credit bureaus.

http://askthemoneycoach.com/2010/01/what%E2%80%99s-the-fastest-way-to-get-the-credit-bureaus-to-fix-mistakes-in-my-credit-reports/

Regarding your credit cards, yes, do notify them also of the identity theft and that this is the reason for the collections and public records on your credit file. But honestly, I wouldn’t expect much from them. Unfortunately, the damage has been done. And while it’s good to put your creditors on notice about the identity theft, I doubt that those creditors will re-open your cards or restore your previous credit limits. Your best bet is to probably wait to clean up this identity theft mess first, then re-apply for a new credit card and/or a new increase in your credit limit.

Lastly, I would also suggest that you enroll in a credit monitoring service. That way you’ll be able to monitor your credit reports and make sure nothing fishy is going on, such as unauthorized accounts you didn’t open.

In a word: yes, those old, alleged medical and hospital delinquencies can be removed from your credit report, but it will likely take some focused work on your part to get them eliminated. Sometimes, medical collection accounts show up on a credit report even after 7 years if a person has paid monthly payments on the debt or has somehow “reactivated” the account by giving lump sum payments, partial payments on settlement payments to get rid of creditors. In your case, you may not have done this, since you said you’ve always disputed the debts. Nevertheless, be aware that a medical bill alleged to be past due might take a year or so (could be more time; could be less) before it’s reported as a collection account. If you had a hospital bill they claimed you owed, from 2003, and it wasn’t reported to the credit bureaus until 2004, that information would remain on your credit report until at least 2011.

Here’s what to do: if the debts are, in fact, more than 7 years old, simply dispute them online at Equifax, Experian and TransUnion. When you specify a reason for your disputes, state that the debts are outdated. If you get nowhere with the credit bureaus, write to the hospital or medical institutions in question directly. Let them know that they are violating the Fair Credit Reporting Act by reporting a debt that is more than 7 years old, and issue a firmly-worded letter insisting that they cease and desist all such reporting to the credit bureaus.

Medical bills do not adversely impact your credit or your credit score, unless you have long overdue medical accounts that go into collections. In the latter case, a hospital or healthcare provider can turn over your medical bill delinquency to a debt collection agency or report an account in collections to the credit bureaus. Anything reported to the credit bureuas will hurt your credit rating. But just having a medical bills, even an account that’s 30 days old to 60, 90 days old or more, won’t automatically be reported to the credit agencies. Of course, you don’t want to tempt healthcare providers. Try to pay past due medical bills as soon as possible to avoid the potential threat of having an account go into collections.

A subscriber to Ask The Money Coach.com wants to know how to remove a medical collection account from their credit report. Click now to hear Lynnette’s answer.

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