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.

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.

When flight paramedic Rita Krenz boards a helicopter, she knows her patients are about to face problems she can't fix — a health care system that buries people in debt after a car accident or stroke.

So she decided to do something about it. She turned for help to RIP Medical Debt, a nonprofit that buys and forgives medical debt.

Krenz started a fundraising campaign that brought in more than $18,000 for the charity. That money has helped RIP Medical Debt forgive the debt of more than 900 people so far, with the average bill abolished totaling around $1,340.

Krenz has no way of knowing if she will help anyone she's treated. But it's enough to know that her campaign will help somebody.

"A lot of my friends in health care are worn down by this broken system," the Charlottesville, Virginia, resident said. "This, it helps give some relief to that weariness."

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Krenz flies several times a week during her 24-hour shifts, responding to emergencies like car accidents or transporting patients from hospital to hospital. The 47-year-old said she started her career focused idealistically on the help she could provide.

"Years in the system now fill me with doubt," Krenz wrote on her fundraiser's webpage, noting that she wonders how life-saving care can lead to financial ruin. "How can this be our system, in this amazing country?"

Rising care costs and shrinking insurance or a lack of coverage can swamp patients with debt, especially if they need a helicopter, which can result in bills topping $20,000 in some cases. More than one in seven U.S. residents with a credit record has overdue medical debt on it, according to the Urban Institute, a nonpartisan think tank.

It's one of the most common forms of debt in collections.

RIP Medical Debt relies on individual donations, corporate sponsors and fundraising campaigns to attack this problem. Krenz started her campaign last September after first hearing about the nonprofit.

She asked friends, family and co-workers for help. RIP Medical Debt promoted her campaign as well, but donations stalled at around $10,000.

Then they picked up again toward the year's end. A church Krenz has no connection to gave $1,000. A couple she doesn't know contributed $2,500.

That run, Krenz said, was so "uplifting and reaffirming that there are good people in the world."

She also threw in money from her pandemic relief stimulus checks, and the campaign climbed past its goal of $15,000.

RIP Medical Debt buys blocks of older debt it can get cheaply and aims to help people with low incomes. It can buy debt in a particular area or market, but it cannot target specific people.

The nonprofit estimates that it has erased more than $3 billion in medical debt since two former debt collections executives started it in 2014. Much work remains.

About $140 billion in medical debt was in collections last year, according to Stanford economist Neale Mahoney.

Erasing debt can make it easier for patients to buy a car or get a job. It also can encourage them to keep up with their care since they don't have to worry about medical bills they still owe.

Once RIP Medical Debt buys and forgives debt, it sends patients a yellow letter telling them things are resolved. For Krenz, that made what she was doing feel more real than simply writing a check to a charity.

"I can picture a person going to the mailbox and getting that letter," she said.