Texas Broker Pushes for Medical Debt to be Expunged

A Texas mortgage broker, Rodney Anderson, has single-handedly pushed for legislation that requires medical bills of $2,500 or less to be expunged from credit reports if the debts have been paid or settled.

Anderson, the executive director of Supreme Lending in Dallas, began a one-man crusade in 2008 after seeing so many home loan applications denied because of unpaid medical bills that had dinged the applicant's credit report.

Legislation recently introduced by Reps. Don Manzullo (R-Ill.), Ralph Hall (R-Tex.) and Heath Shuler (D-N.C.), would allow consumers to have medical debt that had gone to collection but was subsequently paid or settled expunged from their credit report.

"When you walk out of a hospital or lab, there's no check-out line to pay your bill, and then later you get a collections notice," Anderson said.

John Ulzheimer, a credit expert who is president of consumer education at SmartCredit.com, said messing with credit reports is generally a bad idea.

"Medical debt is an extraordinarily reliable indicator of credit risk," Ulzheimer said.

The Fair Credit Reporting Act already requires that inaccurate, outdated or unverified debts be removed from credit reports, which would cover any foul-ups by insurance companies or illegitimate collections.