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If you are approached by a medical debt collector, the most important things to do are pause and review your rights. Medical debt collectors must comply with the Fail Debt Collection Practices Act and the CFPB’s Debt Collection Rule. These limit the number of times and the ways you can be contacted. They also require medical debt collectors to satisfy the conditions of contact and issue a validation notice before they report the debt to credit reporting agencies.

To prevent qualifying medical collections being added to a credit report (i.e., more than $500 and more than a year old), you should follow the same steps as if you found out about an unpaid bill from a healthcare provider. You should also request a credit report to see if the debt already appears on the credit report. If so, and the bill is paid, incorrect, or doesn’t apply to you, removing medical collections from a credit report involves following the advice in the next section.