Medicredit on Your Credit Report: Medical Collections After July 2022

Medicredit, Inc. collects for hospitals and physician groups and almost nothing else, and it belongs to the industry whose bills it chases: since 2013 this Earth City, Missouri agency has been part of Parallon, the shared-services arm of HCA Healthcare. On July 1, 2022 the three nationwide credit reporting agencies stopped reporting paid medical collections and raised the wait before an unpaid one may appear to one year. If you paid it, it should not be there. If the visit was recent, it should not be there yet. This page explains what that gives you, what it does not, and how to route a dispute so it triggers a duty you can enforce.

Who owns Medicredit: The Outsource Group, Parallon, and HCA

Medicredit has been in business since October 5, 1977. It operates within The Outsource Group, the St. Louis revenue cycle company Parallon announced it would acquire on June 12, 2013, and MediCredit, Inc. still appears on HCA Healthcare's subsidiary exhibit filed February 10, 2026.

Records also refer to Medicredit, Inc. dba The Outsource Group and to alternates such as Cogent Financial Group. Under 15 U.S.C. 1692e(14) a collector must use its true business name, so keep every version you are sent.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau does not index this company as Medicredit; its complaints sit under The Outsource Group, Inc., 1,321 all time, 1,188 of them debt collection and 1,050 of those 1,188 tagged medical debt. Filter by company name for Medicredit and almost nothing comes back; a keyword search for medicredit returns 308 complaints, 302 assigned to The Outsource Group, Inc.

The Better Business Bureau separately posts a Pattern of Complaints alert citing allegations of collecting debts not owed. Allegations, not findings. Consumers report the tradeline as MEDICREDIT, MEDICREDIT INC or MEDICREDIT CORP, so match on account number and original creditor, not spelling.

When the hospital that treated you also owns the collector

At an HCA facility the hospital, the business office that produced the bill and the collector can all belong to one corporate family, so the history behind a balance may have to come from a related entity. Ask in writing, using the list below.

The sharpest version is financial assistance. Hospital systems run charity care policies, and a determination under one can reduce or erase a balance, but it has to reach the collector before the collector stops reporting. Do not assume it travelled because both sides share a parent; send a copy yourself. If a determination zeroed the account and the tradeline still shows a balance, that is an inaccuracy on its face.

July 2022: paid medical collections came off, and the clock got longer

On March 18, 2022 the three nationwide credit reporting agencies announced two changes, both effective July 1, 2022: paid medical collections would no longer be reported at all, and the wait before an unpaid one could appear rose from 180 days to one year from placement.

Say this plainly: these are voluntary industry changes, not law, but a benchmark for what the agencies themselves call a correct tradeline. Take the placement date, add one year, and a Medicredit collection showing before that year has run should not be there yet under the agencies' own rule: two dates, not anyone believing your account of the bill. And if you paid, in full or by a settlement the collector accepted, the entry shows what the agencies said in July 2022 they would stop showing. Attach the receipt.

Behind those policies sits an actual statute. 15 U.S.C. 1681c(a)(4) bars an agency from reporting a collection more than seven years plus 180 days from the date of first delinquency on the underlying account. Paying does not restart it. And the reporting clock is not the limitation period for suing on the debt: two clocks of different lengths and different consequence.

From April 11, 2023 the agencies also removed medical collections with an initial balance under $500, roughly 70% of such tradelines industry-wide. The cut-off runs on the initial balance, so do not assume it reaches yours: the figures in this company's own record run above it. The debt in Carroll was $787.95, settled at $551.56; CFPB narratives cite $1,700 and $1,403.10. The CFPB's medical debt rule was separately vacated in its entirety on July 11, 2025 in Cornerstone Credit Union League v. CFPB (E.D. Tex.), with no appeal. Our piece on the FCRA and medical debt tracks what remains.

Richmond v. Medicredit and the duty to mark a debt disputed

Richmond v. Medicredit, Inc. (W.D.N.C., decided July 22, 2022) was brought under 15 U.S.C. 1692e(8), which makes it a violation to report a disputed debt without communicating that it is disputed. The plaintiff's evidence was that her Experian report carried no notice of dispute.

Both sides moved for summary judgment and the court denied both motions, finding genuine disputes of material fact. That is not a finding that Medicredit violated the statute, and not a ruling in its favour. The duty it turns on is your point: an entry with no dispute flag tells every reader that the balance is unchallenged, so if you disputed in writing and it carries none, you have a dated discrepancy.

Three other decisions round out the record, two on one rule: under 15 U.S.C. 1692c(a)(2), once a collector knows you are represented on an account it must deal with your lawyer, not you. In Ebaugh v. Medicredit, Inc. (8th Cir., April 11, 2025) the court reversed a dismissal for want of Article III standing: the concrete injury was postage and an envelope she bought to forward to her lawyer a communication she alleges was sent while she was represented. A standing ruling, nothing more.

Woodman v. Medicredit, Inc. is the disciplined mirror: on September 9, 2024 the District of Nevada granted summary judgment to Medicredit on all claims, finding knowledge of representation only on the plaintiff's existing two accounts. Knowledge is account-specific, so a notice of representation must name every account. In Carroll v. Medicredit, Inc., also in Nevada, the court on March 18, 2022 denied both sides' motions for judgment on the pleadings. After TransUnion LLC v. Ramirez, standing is the case-killer.

As of July 2026 we located no CFPB, Federal Trade Commission or state attorney general action, no consent order against Medicredit or The Outsource Group, and no reported data breach: what the searchable record shows, not a certification.

Where to reach Medicredit and what to ask for

Write before you call, and send it so it produces a receipt; a call leaves no document you can put before a judge.

• Correspondence: Medicredit, Inc., 111 Corporate Office Drive, Suite 200, Earth City, MO 63045-1506.
• Telephone: (800) 823-2318 on the BBB profile; (800) 888-2238 on other listings.
• BBB-listed mailing address: PO Box 505600, Saint Louis, MO 63150-5600, apparently a payment lockbox, not a dispute address.
• Better Business Bureau: A+, accredited June 20, 2016, with a Pattern of Complaints alert.

Ask for a defined list: the itemised bill, the original creditor, the placement date, the explanation of benefits for every insurer billed, the payment and adjustment history including any charity care write-down, and which agencies it reported to. Within thirty days of the first written communication, dispute the debt expressly and demand verification under 15 U.S.C. 1692g, which suspends collection until verification is mailed.

Verify a channel before you send money through it. Your letter carries an account number and an original creditor, and a genuine channel matches both. Call the number on the BBB profile, not one printed on a page you happened to find. PO Box 505600 is a payment lockbox, so a dispute mailed there is not a dispute. And do not pay before you validate: in Carroll the consumer is alleged to have settled a $787.95 balance for $551.56 on June 19, 2020 and to have got three prerecorded calls that August and September anyway.

The direct dispute route at 15 U.S.C. 1681s-2(a)(8) and 12 C.F.R. 1022.43 imposes an investigation duty only where the dispute reaches an address the furnisher has designated, and no such address for Medicredit is published anywhere we find. Under 1022.43(c) a direct dispute may then go to any address at which it does business: Earth City, not the lockbox.

Wrong numbers: what the calling record suggests about account matching

Medicredit has a long public record of litigation about who it telephoned. A collector repeatedly alleged to have reached the wrong person's phone deserves scrutiny on account-to-person matching. In Saggio v. Medicredit (E.D. Mo.) a class was certified on January 23, 2026 over roughly 300,000 calls that Medicredit's own records indicated might have gone to wrong numbers. Certification decides whether claims proceed together, not whether anyone did wrong; these stay allegations.

Before that, Miles v. Medicredit, Inc. resolved for $1.95 million, final approval February 7, 2023, covering roughly 303,600 telephone numbers. The Martinez and Hornberger matters reached only a proposed $5 million settlement, hearing set for May 15, 2018. A settlement is a compromise, not an admission, and Medicredit denied liability.

The statute also fixes when it may call. 15 U.S.C. 1692c(a)(1) confines calls to 8am to 9pm at your location. 1692c(a)(3) bars calls at work once the collector knows or has reason to know your employer prohibits them, and here is what other pages get wrong: you generally have to tell it so, in writing and dated. Under 12 C.F.R. 1006.14(b)(2)(i) harassment is presumed, rebuttably, at more than seven calls in seven consecutive days about one debt, or a call within seven days of a telephone conversation about it. Communication tactics is the third-largest CFPB issue category here, 146 complaints, all allegations.

A written demand under 1692c(c) stops the contact, and that is all it does. It does not dispute the debt, stop the furnishing, or stop a suit, which is why it is no substitute for the 1692g demand and the bureau dispute.

If numbers were allegedly matched to the wrong people at that scale, a name matched to the wrong file is no fantasy. When a Medicredit entry appears for a hospital you have never used, ask in writing for the identifiers the collector holds and check them: a shared family name, a dropped suffix, a date of birth that is not yours. Where identity theft is the cause, 15 U.S.C. 1681c-2 requires an agency to block the resulting information within four business days.

The bureau dispute and the duty it triggers

File with Equifax, Experian and TransUnion under 15 U.S.C. 1681i. Each must run a reasonable reinvestigation free of charge, ordinarily within thirty days, and forward the furnisher everything relevant you sent. That notice is the trigger: it sets off 15 U.S.C. 1681s-2(b), which requires the furnisher to investigate, review what the agency sent, report the results, and correct or delete anything inaccurate, incomplete or unverifiable with every agency it reported to.

The reason you cannot simply write to Earth City and stop is 15 U.S.C. 1681s-2(a): that general duty to furnish accurate information is enforceable by regulators only, not privately by consumers. The enforceable duty lives in subsection (b), and only a bureau notice activates it.

Write the dispute so it can be checked rather than believed. The account was placed on May 12, 2025; the one-year wait had not run when this entry appeared on June 2, 2025. Give me the date of first delinquency alongside the placement date. That can be verified or refuted from documents; a statement that the account is wrong cannot. Our credit dispute letter guide sets out the structure.

Send to every agency showing the entry; the agencies do not correct each other. Pull all three reports once the reinvestigation closes, free at AnnualCreditReport.com. Keep the result letters: one saying the information was verified as accurate, beside the document showing it is not, is the core exhibit.

Damages, deadlines, and no fee unless we win

Two provisions set what a violation is worth. Under 15 U.S.C. 1681o a negligent failure to comply supports actual damages with fees and costs. Under 15 U.S.C. 1681n a willful one supports statutory damages of $100 to $1,000 per violation without proof of actual loss, punitive damages where warranted, and fees. Willfulness reaches reckless disregard: a furnisher that gets an explanation of benefits showing the insurer paid and reverifies the balance anyway is the shape of case courts have called reckless.

Actual damages are usually concrete: a mortgage declined or repriced, a car loan at a worse rate than the file supported, a credit line cut after an account review picked up the collection. Courts also recognise emotional distress, and being pursued over a bill an insurer already paid is a distinct kind of it.

On timing, 15 U.S.C. 1681p requires suit within two years of discovering the violation and never more than five years after it occurred. That clock does not pause while you file a fourth dispute, or while you wait to see whether the problem resolves itself; it starts when you could first have seen the entry. Because the statute shifts fees to the defendant when a consumer prevails, this work needs no money up front; we review Medicredit matters at no charge and take cases on contingency.

How The Kim Law Firm handles Medicredit problems

We represent consumers only, nationwide, never lenders, hospitals, collection agencies or credit bureaus. The Medicredit matters that become cases here have recognisable shapes: a paid medical collection still reporting after July 1, 2022; an entry that beat the one-year wait; a balance the insurer already paid; a charity care determination that never reached the collector; a tradeline with no dispute notation.

We do not help remove accurate negative information. If you owed the hospital bill and the entry records it correctly, no lawyer can lawfully make it disappear. A complaint about what the hospital charged, or an insurer's coverage decision, is not a Fair Credit Reporting Act matter either.

Bring the collection letters, the itemised bill, every explanation of benefits, proof of payment, your dispute correspondence with the certified mail receipts, and the reinvestigation results from all three bureaus. Tell us about every account, not only the one that is calling: under 15 U.S.C. 1692c(a)(2) a collector that knows you are represented must route through your lawyer, so retaining counsel is itself what stops the calls, and Woodman is the reminder that knowledge runs account by account. Where a properly routed dispute left the error standing, you may be entitled to actual, statutory and punitive damages and fees. We work on contingency: no fee unless we win.

Our FCRA lawyer guide explains how a case unfolds, and the credit reporting errors overview covers the patterns we see most. Other agencies appear on our medical debt collectors page. When you are ready, contact us for a free review.

Frequently asked questions

Who owns Medicredit?

HCA Healthcare, through Parallon. Medicredit operates within The Outsource Group, which ClearLight Partners backed from 2004 until 2013. Parallon announced its acquisition on June 12, 2013, and Parallon is wholly owned within the HCA group. MediCredit, Inc. still appears at Exhibit 21 of HCA Healthcare's Form 10-K filed February 10, 2026. Older articles naming other owners usually describe a former investor or a vendor, not the parent.

I paid a Medicredit medical collection. Why is it still on my credit report?

It should not be. From July 1, 2022 the three nationwide credit reporting agencies stopped reporting paid medical collections entirely, however old and whatever the amount. That was a voluntary industry change rather than a law, so it is not something you sue over directly, but a paid medical collection still showing displays what the agencies themselves said they would no longer display. Dispute it with each bureau reporting it and enclose the dated receipt.

How much will a Medicredit collection lower my credit score?

No honest lawyer will quote you a point figure, and be wary of any page that does. Scoring models react to the presence of a collection on the file rather than the size of the balance, which is why a small medical balance can behave much like a large one. The more useful point: a paid medical collection should not be scoring against you at all after July 1, 2022, because it should not be on the file to score. Get it off, and the question answers itself.

What happens if I ignore Medicredit?

Three clocks run against you. The 30-day window under 15 U.S.C. 1692g closes, and with it the cheapest lever you have, because a timely written dispute suspends collection until the debt is verified. The one-year wait before an unpaid medical collection may appear runs out, and the tradeline arrives. And 15 U.S.C. 1681p gives you two years from discovery of a violation, so that clock starts the day you first see the entry, not the day you decide to act. Silence spends all three.

Where do I send a Medicredit dispute?

Send written correspondence to Medicredit, Inc., 111 Corporate Office Drive, Suite 200, Earth City, MO 63045-1506, certified with return receipt, asking for the itemised bill, the original creditor, the placement date and the explanation of benefits. No designated direct-dispute address is published, so under 12 C.F.R. 1022.43(c) a direct dispute may go to any address at which it does business. Then file with all three bureaus, because only a bureau notice triggers the furnisher duty you can enforce.

Where you live does not limit us. The Kim Law Firm represents consumers nationwide in Fair Credit Reporting Act matters, from our offices in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. If a Medicredit collection reports a hospital balance you already paid, one your insurer covered, or one that appeared before the one-year wait had run, we would like to hear about it.