`

Consolidate your medical debt and bills

With millions of American struggling with health care expenses, consolidating medical debt is becoming more common and is a great option for people to consider.

While some forms of medical debt consolidation deal only with medical debt, others may combine several unrelated accounts. While there are multiple options to consider when dealing with medical debt, consolidation is an excellent option for certain situations. If a family cannot quality for charity assistance, free health care, or Medicaid, a plan to consolidate medical debt may be a great option to help them stay afloat. For those families, there are a number of methods to consolidate medical debt. Not all are equally attractive, and it is important to consider all aspects of the situation before committing to a plan for repayment.

Types of medical debt consolidation

You will find two ways to consolidate your medical debt. The most common option is to use an unsecured personal loan. This involves a bank or other lender reviewing your financial situation, including employment status, how timely you have paid bills in the past, your credit rating, and more.

If the lender decides to proceed, they will provide you with a loan that can be used to pay off your bills at each health care provider. This tends to be a feasible option for people that do not owe too much money, and that may have better credit scores.

Even if you can provide collateral for a secured loan, many experts advise to consolidate medical debt with unsecured loans because it reduces your risk in the event that payments cannot be made. So therefore you will not lose any collateral from an unsecured loan. Read more on unsecured loans. Click here

The second option is a medical debt consolidation program. This involves you working with a third party, such as a non profit agency, debt settlement company, counselor, or other professional. You can give them your approval so they can contact each of your doctors, hospitals, and other health care providers to negotiate a reduced interest rate or a better payment plan. Some programs may be able to reduce your medical debt by up to 50%.

There are a few things to be aware of. Depending on the company you use, this type of medical debt consolidation could negatively impact your credit. If your medical debt is reported to credit bureaus as settled and not paid in full then your credit scores could be reduced.. So you need to make sure that your bills and debts are recorded as paid in full. Since you do not have to take out a loan, your total outstanding debts do not matter, and your credit scores are not an issue, medical debt consolidation programs tend to be the most realistic option for many families and is the easiest option.

Medical debt settlement is also growing in popularity. This may be more of an extreme option for people to consider to deal with medical and hospital bills, but it can be effective in the right situation. Read more on medical and hospital debt settlement. Click here.

Why use a professional?

The bottom line is that using a company to assist you with consolidating medical debts will almost always be more successful. Doctor’s and hospital billing departments will treat a regular consumer and a professional differently. They know a professional has more information on past practices, more knowledge of consumer rights and the law, and they are less likely to try to “bully” a professional than a unprepared, stressed out individual. If you use a professional for help with your medical bills and debts, you have a much better chance to  settle for a lower amount on your debts, or a cheaper payment plan.

Other reasons to use a third party company include negotiating requires skills and experience. While they can be developed over time, many people do not have the luxury of time. It is very stressful in taking constant phone calls from doctors, hospitals, billing departments, and debt collectors. Not to many how much personal time that takes up. Professionals can take over all these responsibilities. Medical billing advocates may be able to help as well.

With the ever increasing health care costs in our country, the bottom line is that hospital and medical debt consolidation is an important tool to use when trying to get out of medical debt and pay off your bills.