The most common complaint to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau concerns efforts to collect medical bills that are not owed, reports CBS News. The unpaid bills are then reported to credit agencies, triggering a credit crisis for the victim whose most straightforward solution is to pay the fraudulent charges.
Medical bills are the most commonly reported item on consumer credit reports, according to regulators. "People also report learning of an outstanding medical bill only after experiencing a drop in their credit score and being told that only paying the bill would remove the negative collections information from their credit report," the CFPB added. … "Many Americans feel forced to pay medical bills that they have already paid or never owed to begin with," CFPB Director Rohit Chopra said in a statement. "The credit reporting system should not be used as a weapon to coerce patients into paying medical bills they do not owe."
It's under-reported how much getting ripped off by the U.S. healthcare system has to do with the contempt for medical professionals and medical science that grew during the pandemic.
