Sorry, just getting around to replying to this. For me, it just went away after 7 years. I made a big purchase during that time and still got the interest rate for top tier credit.

Couple things here:

1. as of now, medical debt doesn’t hit your personal credit like other debt does, which leads me to…
2. the debt collectors may try to get you to finance the debt, which absolutely WILL impact your credit if you default. Never finance medical debt, it can only hurt you.

This is of course in addition to the other comment that says you need to ask for proof of ownership from the collectors.

I had a about a $100k medical bill that was covered except for a $5k deductible years ago, which I couldn’t pay. It eventually went away.