Medical Debt - Creditor Classification, and - identifying on Consumer Reports

A few years back, I came upon a post from the CDIA, I believe, that flagged all CRA's with the expectation of a required change to how Medical Debt is expected to be treated, in Metro2 reporting. This statement, then - required the usage of a field called "Creditor Classification" to be used to identify a debt collection account as actual Health Care/Medical debt. This would include, hospital, doctor and even a service like "Care Credit", which provides services for health care expenditures. Today - there are also changes to how medical debt is determined to be reportable, or not. Durations of time and amount, paid - unpaid, etc., impact the data that can be sent to a CRA. Today, and on many consumer reports (especially EX and TU), the ability to identify a true medical debt is not clearly defined for any consumer. See Creditor Classifications' valid values below. Typically, what I have seen - is where a "Name of Account" is used by debt collectors to refer to an account's Original Creditor (OC), and as if this is from a medical provider, or place the name of the OC - in a field called "Historical Info", but - no creditor classification value at all. Example " Middlebrook Hospital - ER Collections " No other identifier that this is medical No Creditor Classification On Experian - Historical Data stores the OC Name only Why is this important? Any system, that is built leverages code (instructions) on how, it should act when*** And as such - if, instructions of Metro2 say, send us a Creditor Classification code, to identify Medical debt, then a Data Furnisher should. Think of this as a way to pay your credit card bill, where a Bank Name is required. If they don't - and instead your eyes believe it, but not the code itself --- what is truly occurring? Most codes - do not account for exceptions/or variations - as it creation, and maintenance would be horrific. Take a look at the data for medical collections - please share where you have it with the identifier or creditor classification (I have one, on Equifax). Creditor Classification 1.jpg Creditor Classification 2.jpg Creditor Classification 3.jpg