CareCredit is a credit card account, or line of credit, offered through Synchrony Financial that medical and dental offices are offering to their patients, with or without health insurance, to pay for the uninsured costs up front. Once the patient signs up and is approved for the credit, then Care Credit pays the health care provider their charges and the patient then begins making payments on the account, typically on a monthly basis.
If the patient files bankruptcy, then the debt to CareCredit is required to be listed in the bankruptcy as an unsecured debt. In Chapter 7, this typically means that the debt to Care Credit is discharged or wiped out. Since Care Credit has paid the health care provider, there would typically not be any debt to the health care provider to list in the bankruptcy petition, unless there were any other amounts owed to the provider once they were paid by health insurance and CareCredit.
If the patient files Chapter 13 bankruptcy, then CareCredit would be listed as an unsecured creditor and paid back whatever percentage that unsecured creditors are being paid through the patients Chapter 13 plan.
As our health care world changes, we expect to see more creditors such as CareCredit and more questions from clients on how this debt would be affected by bankruptcy.