On Thursday, in its annual report, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) highlighted challenges American’s face when debt collector pursue allegedly unpaid medical bills.
The report to Congress on the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act highlighted the 8,500 complaints submitted to the CFPB in 2022 by servicemembers, older adults and other consumers in regard to medical debt collections. CFPB said it and states have worked to stop the collection of medical bills that are inaccurate or not even owed at all.
“The CFPB sent more than 60,000 debt collection complaints to companies for review and response,” the report said. “Of these, approximately 8,500 (15 percent) were about attempts to collect a medical bill. Consumers raised a variety of issues, including reporting attempts to collect on bills they did not owe and concerns about the quality of information received during the collections process. Servicemembers and older adults, despite generally having insurance coverage and access to free or reduced cost care, were among those who reached out to the CFPB about problematic debt collection activity on medical bills.”
The report also provided updates on the debt collection market and summarized CFPB activities under the Fair Trade Collection Act to protect small businesses from unfair and deceptive debt collection practices.
Officials with CFPB said tens of millions of Americans are pursued by debt collectors for medical bills. The CFPB has previously said that the collection, furnishing, and reporting of medical bills is plagues by inaccuracies.
CFPB said it’s clear that medical debt collectors may violate federal law when they attempt to collect bills that are not actually owed or are the wrong amount; that state can generally enforce their own debt collection laws to protect consumers; and that the agency can take steps to ensure medical debt collectors follow the law.