Diane Brown
Executive Director, Arizona PIRG
Executive Director, Arizona PIRG
Arizona PIRG Education Fund
A new report by the Arizona PIRG Education Fund and the Frontier Group explores consumer complaints about medical debt, a major source of problems for consumers, since medical debt items on credit reports are often wrong or about the wrong consumer.
According to Medical Debt Malpractice: Consumer Complaints about Medical Debt Collectors and How the CFPB Can Help, medical debt collectors often employ aggressive tactics and attempt to collect debt from the wrong customers – putting consumers’ credit records at risk. Medical debt accounts for more than half of all collection items that appear on consumer credit reports. A review of 17,701 medical debt collection complaints submitted to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) shows that problems with medical debt collection are widespread and harm Americans across the country.
“Consumers deserve protection from unfair, aggressive, and illegal medical debt collection. Fortunately, consumers have a powerful resource in the CFPB, which has already taken multiple actions against collection companies that break the law while collecting medical debt,” stated Diane E. Brown, Executive Director of the Arizona PIRG Education Fund.
Key findings of the Arizona PIRG Education Fund and Frontier Group report include:
“Medical debt collection is a system run amok,” said Gideon Weissman of Frontier Group, report co-author. “Our analysis of CFPB complaint data suggests that many of the consumers facing harassment and damaged credit due to medical debt never owed any money in the first place.”
The report’s key recommendations included the following: