90Specialty and Industry-Specific

    Account Type Code 90: Medical Debt (Installment or Collection)

    Account Type Code 90 means "Medical Debt (Installment or Collection)". A debt arising from health-care services, reported either as a provider's payment plan or as a medical balance being collected. It is reported in Account Type (Field 15) of the Base Segment, 2 characters at position 84.

    Specification

    Code90
    MeaningMedical Debt (Installment or Collection)
    FieldAccount Type (Field 15)
    RecordBase Segment
    Length / position2 chars · 84–85
    CategorySpecialty and Industry-Specific
    CRRG referenceCRRG Exhibits 1 & 2 (Account Type Codes)

    What Account Type Code 90 means

    • Identifies the debt as medical in origin. That single fact drives distinct treatment at the bureaus and distinct scrutiny from regulators.
    • The tradeline must never identify the provider, the facility, or the nature of the services. This is the defining reporting constraint on medical debt, and the Account Type code is the only place the medical character of the debt is expressed.
    • Covers both a provider's own installment payment plan and a medical balance being reported by the party collecting it.
    • Does NOT mean a medical credit card or a health-care financing revolving account. Those are card and revolving account types even where the spend is medical.
    • Does NOT mean the insurance portion. Only what the consumer is personally obligated to pay after insurance adjudication is a consumer debt.

    When to report 90

    • 1A provider reports a patient payment plan for a balance remaining after insurance, repaid monthly over a fixed term.
    • 2A hospital reports a self-pay balance placed on an installment arrangement with the patient.
    • 3A party collecting a medical balance reports it under the medical Account Type so the debt's origin is visible without naming the provider.
    • 4A provider reports a payment plan that was completed in full and closes the tradeline at a zero balance.
    • 5A provider reports a payment plan that went delinquent after several missed installments.

    Reporting rules

    • Never put the provider's name, the facility's name, or any description of the services in the Account Number, name fields, or any free-text field. This is not a style preference; it is the core constraint on medical furnishing.
    • Report only the patient-responsible amount after insurance has adjudicated the claim. Furnishing a balance still pending with an insurer misstates what the consumer owes.
    • Do not restart the Date of First Delinquency when a balance moves between the provider and a collecting party. The DOFD travels with the debt.
    • Report the balance as paid with a zero balance when insurance later pays it, rather than leaving a stale balance outstanding.
    • Apply your organisation's waiting period and minimum-balance policies consistently across the whole portfolio rather than account by account.

    Codes and fields that must agree

    A file can be structurally valid and still be wrong. These are the cross-field conditions Account Type Code 90 has to satisfy.

    • Portfolio Type must be I (Installment) under Appendix A, which means a payment plan must exist: Terms Duration and Scheduled Monthly Payment are both required while the account is open.
    • Credit Limit must be blank or zero on Portfolio Type I.
    • Where the debt is reported by a collecting party rather than by the provider, the K1 Original Creditor Name segment carries the original creditor and the K1 Creditor Classification value must identify the account as medical. That classification, not a free-text description, is how the medical origin is communicated.
    • Date of First Delinquency is required once the account is delinquent and must be the original creditor's DOFD, unchanged by placement or by a subsequent payment arrangement.
    • Original Charge-Off Amount, where carried, must be the amount charged off by the original creditor and must not grow with post-charge-off interest or fees.
    • If the debt is sold, the buyer reports Account Type 0C with K1 and K2 segments, and your tradeline must not continue to carry the same open balance.
    • Amount Past Due must reconcile with the Payment History Profile and Account Status; a medical payment plan showing delinquency with a zero Amount Past Due is a contradiction.

    Common errors involving 90

    K102
    K1 Invalid Creditor Classification
    The original creditor classification code is invalid
    K101
    K1 Original Creditor Name Missing
    The original creditor name in K1 segment is blank
    B026
    Date of First Delinquency Missing on Delinquent Account
    A delinquent or charged-off account has no Date of First Delinquency

    Vocabulary

    K1 SegmentDate of First Delinquency

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    Source: CRRG Exhibits 1 & 2 (Account Type Codes). Last reviewed 2026-08-25.

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    Metro 2 Account Type Code 90: Medical Debt (Installment or Collection)