Short answer: the federal ban on medical debt appearing on credit reports never took effect. A Texas federal court vacated the CFPB’s Regulation V rule in July 2025, so as of late 2026 medical debt can legally show up on your credit report again — unless you live in one of roughly 15 states that passed their own laws, or the debt is small and recent enough to be covered by the credit bureaus’ own voluntary policies.
If you’ve been telling yourself “medical debt doesn’t count anymore,” that was true for about six months and it isn’t true now. Here’s what’s actually in effect.
What the CFPB rule would have done
In January 2025, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau finalized a rule under Regulation V that would have banned medical debt information from consumer credit reports entirely, and barred lenders from using medical debt in credit decisions. The agency estimated it would have wiped roughly $49 billion in medical debt off the reports of about 15 million Americans.
It never got there. A coalition of trade groups sued, and in July 2025 a federal court in the Eastern District of Texas vacated the rule before its compliance date. The CFPB, under new leadership, did not appeal.
What still protects you
Two separate sets of protections survived the court ruling, because they were never part of the vacated federal rule in the first place:
- The three major credit bureaus’ 2022–2023 voluntary policy changes. Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion still remove paid medical collections from reports, don’t report unpaid medical debt under $500, and give new medical debt a 365-day grace period before it can appear at all.
- State-level laws. Around 15 states — including New York, Colorado, Illinois, California, and New Jersey — passed their own statutes restricting or banning medical debt on credit reports and in some cases barring it from being used in lending, housing, or employment decisions. These are separate from federal law and the CFPB’s rule being vacated doesn’t touch them.
So the real answer to “does medical debt show up on my credit report” depends on three things: how old the debt is, how much it is, and which state you live in.
What can currently appear on your report
| Situation | Can it appear on your report? |
|---|---|
| Paid medical collection | No — removed under bureau policy |
| Unpaid medical debt under $500 | No — excluded under bureau policy |
| Unpaid medical debt under 365 days old | No — grace period still applies |
| Unpaid medical debt, over $500, over 365 days old, in a state with no medical debt law | Yes |
| Any medical debt in a state with its own ban (e.g. NY, CO, IL, CA, NJ) | No, or restricted — check your state’s specific law |
If medical debt is already on your report
The vacated federal rule doesn’t change your dispute rights under the Fair Credit Reporting Act. If a medical collection on your report is inaccurate, unverifiable, or should have been excluded under the bureau’s own $500/365-day policy, you can still dispute it directly with Equifax, Experian, or TransUnion, and separately with the collection agency itself. Keep documentation: the original bill, proof of insurance processing, and any correspondence showing the amount was under $500 or under a year old at the time it was reported. A rent reporting habit and disciplined credit utilization ratio won’t offset an inaccurate medical collection sitting on your file — the dispute has to happen first.
If a goodwill approach feels more realistic than a formal dispute, the same logic used for goodwill letters for late payments applies to some medical collections too — it works better with smaller providers and current or former patients in good standing than with debt already sold to a third-party collector.
Check your state before you assume anything
Because this now runs state by state rather than as one federal rule, the honest move is to check your specific state’s law rather than rely on a national headline. If you’re not sure whether your state has a medical debt credit reporting law, search “[your state] medical debt credit report law 2026” rather than trusting outdated 2025 coverage that assumed the CFPB rule would survive.
The bottom line
Medical debt protection in 2026 is a patchwork, not a federal guarantee. Small, recent, or paid medical debt is still off your report because of bureau policy that predates and survived the court case. Larger, older, unpaid medical debt is back on the table everywhere except the roughly 15 states that legislated their own protection. If you’re carrying medical debt and don’t know which category you’re in, that’s the first thing to find out — not your credit score.
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