Starting this year, the three leading credit agencies began wiping medical debt under $500 from americans' credit reports.

To benefit from this change, you don't have to do anything.

But experts say it's still smart to check on it.

“If you find that there's an error on your credit report, you can write to the credit bureau who has the reporting," said financial attorney Leslie Tayne. “Remember, not every creditor has to report to all three bureaus, so you might see that there's a delinquent medical debt on one or two reports, but not all of them.”

You should also notice a boost in your credit score.

”On a credit score, just one delinquent debt, even for $25 or $75, a small amount can actually take your credit score by a 100 points or more depending on where your original score was,” Tayne said. “That's why it's very important to understand what this really means for consumers.”

Higher credit scores help people secure loans, and get them at a lower rate.

Just because medical debt no longer impacts you in this area doesn't mean it's gone.

“You could still be sued by a creditor, a medical debt provider, a law firm who's collecting on behalf of a hospital or a provider on behalf of the debt,” Tayne said.

To prevent any medical debt from showing up on your credit at all, check with the provider about setting up a payment plan as soon as you get the bill.

If the debt doesn't go to collections then it doesn't get reported on your credit.

There are also non-profits that can help to see.

Crammed inside her studio apartment in New York City, Janet Mendez is doing her best to stay healthy after contracting COVID-19 back in March. Recovering from the virus has been difficult, a pain only compounded by the massive medical bills that are now piling up.

It was March 25 of this year, when the 33-year-old woman was first admitted to St. Luke’s Hospital in Manhattan. Unable to breathe, she was placed onto a ventilator by doctors. Her body was only getting 70 percent of the oxygen being pumped into her lungs.

“The first couple of days I didn’t know who I was. It was scary because you see all of these people, ambulances coming in and out, people laying in beds,” she recalled. “I was so early on pretty much everything was being tested on me.”

Mendez spent nearly three weeks in the hospital’s ICU. She was eventually discharged and sent home, but months later, she still has a hard time walking and even breathing. The pain continues to be so bad that the office administrator for a local Dominoes is only able to work one day a week.

“The COVID affected my liver and my lungs,” she said. “They don’t know if I could catch it again, and now my immune system is worse than before, so now, I have to be extra careful.”

Now, Mendez is dealing with another side effect from the virus: the bills.

“There was this initial shock of seeing the bill,” she said.

Just days after being sent home from the hospital, Mendez started receiving bills for her 19-day stay in the hospital. Congress has mandated that COVID related procedures be covered under the CARES Act, but many patients are discovering there are loopholes in legislation and they’re the ones responsible for paying.

Initially, Mendez’s medical expenses totaled more than $400,000, and she has insurance.

“How are you telling me I owe this much if Congress and all these people are saying you’re covered? How am I going to pay for this? How is this going to set me back on my other bills,” she wondered.

After her story started gaining attention in the media, the hospital froze Mendez’s account. Currently, she believes she’s only responsible for about $75,000 in expenses. But it’s an astronomical amount Mendez says she can’t afford.

“How is this system helping? How are you helping people in a pandemic survive this?”

LOS ANGELES — From Olympic-hopeful to battling the health care system, Phil Gaimon is among millions whose livelihoods have been threatened by medical debt.

While Congress passed a new law banning surprise medical bills, it won't go into effect until January 1.

“Oh, I was shattered. I was freaked out when it was $90,000," said Gaimon. "And the second bill came, and that might have been the first time I cried in the entire accident. The pain didn’t do it to me, but wondering if I’d have to sell my house. You just don't know, and it's scary."

After retiring from professional cycling in 2016, Gaimon continued training like a pro. He posted routes and progress on social media, gaining a loyal following of supporters and sponsors.

"I was far more valuable having adventures on YouTube and getting hill climb records than I was finishing 18th at some weird race in Belgium no one's heard of," Gaimon.

Three years into retirement, he was contacted by USA Cycling. The coaches were looking for a fourth athlete to complete their team for the Tokyo Olympics.

“I just thought, 'Cool, I’ll go there. I'll make one video for my YouTube channel, Phil tries out for the Olympics. And that'll be the end of it.' But I went, and my time was really fast," said Gaimon. “From then, it was throwing all my plans and the rest of my year in the trash, because if the Olympics is possible, then nothing else really matters.”

But his aspirations were cut short while competing in an Olympic-qualifying event in Pennsylvania. He suffered life-threatening injuries after colliding with another rider.

“The next two months were just like a blur of hospitals, where you can't tell day from night," he recalled.

Covered by two insurance plans, he encouraged supporters to donate funds to No Kid Hungry instead of his medical bills.

"And ironically, I was not covered," he said.

His case was featured in the Kaiser Health News series Bill of the Month. His care at two East Coast hospitals was out of network, leaving him with $150,000 in medical bills.

"For months, I thought it was a mistake," said Gaimon. "Spent my day writing letters and making phone calls and trying to educate myself on what else to do.”

A new law going into effect in January protects Americans nationwide from costly surprise bills.

It bans providers from charging out-of-network prices for emergency care. For scheduled procedures, out-of-network providers must give patients an estimated bill ahead of time.

Ambulances, however, will still be exempt from the law.

“I think a lot of people are scared into paying for these bills or bullied into it or tricked into it. They tried to do it to me," said Gaimon.

The law will establish one system for filing complaints, which can be made verbally or in writing. The government must respond to consumer claims within 60 days.

Providers could face up to $10,000 for each violation.

Gaimon says he won't write a check until the numbers on his bill make sense.

“I picked a cause I believe in, No Kid Hungry. The cause of medical BS found me. I don't want to spend the rest of my life being a politician or spouting about that, but it is something everyone needs to know about," he said.