If you’ve been admitted to the hospital recently, you may find an Inquiry from the hospital on your credit report.   Yes, it probably was legitimate and authorized by you.  No, it wasn’t used to determine if you or your loved one would be admitted for care.

Like so many businesses these days, medical care facilities are requesting authorization for credit checks as part of their routine paperwork.  Most people don’t read the fine print in the multitude of pages they have to sign, especially for medical service, so they are not aware that they okayed the credit pull.

According to John Ulzheimer, president of consumer education at Credit.com, hospitals are basically granting patients a form of credit and they want to know whether or not you’re going to pay them back, just like any other creditor.  The credit report information is used by the accounts receivables department to identify, after care has been provided, who is likely to pay and who isn’t.

WHAT TO DO
1) Read the fine print on everything you sign.  When you give your full name, date of birth and social security number, they have everything they need for a credit check.

2) Ask if they are pulling your credit.  It’s okay to find out at check in.

3) Check your credit reports 2-3 months after a hospital stay or major medical event.  Medical collections are very common on credit reports, even if you paid the deductibles and had insurance coverage.  Monitoring your credit allows you to catch these errors early and correct them before they have a severe impact on your credit scores.

4) Read this article for more information on collection accounts and what you need to know BEFORE paying them.

Understanding your credit reports and learning what you can do as a consumer is important for getting better credit scores.  Sign up for our RSS feed to get the latest articles on credit building sent directly to you.

Thank you to Karen Price Mueller for the article highlighting this topic.