orders. (K) As a result of the settlement agreements, the three nationwide CRAs will set a 180-day waiting period before including medical collections on a report and will remove a medical collection from a report once it is paid by an insurance company. While this change will benefit many, once a medical collection appears on a report, it will only be deleted or suppressed if it is found to have been the insurance company’s obligation to pay and the insurer pays it. Given the research showing there is little predictive value in medical debt information, medical collections that are paid or settled should quickly be removed from a report, regardless of who pays or settles this debt. (5) Financial abuse by known persons (A) Financial abuse and exploitation are frequently associated with domestic violence. This type of abuse may result in fraudulent charges to a credit card or having fraudulent accounts created by the abuser in the survivor’s name. Financial abuse may also result in the survivor’s inability to make timely payments on their valid obligations due to loss or changes in income that can occur when their abuser steals from or coerces the survivor to relinquish their paychecks or savings. (B) By racking up substantial debts in the survivor’s name, abusers are able to exercise financial control over their survivors to make it economically difficult for the survivor, whose credit is often destroyed, to escape the situation. (C) Domestic abuse survivors with poor credit are likely to face significant obstacles in establishing financial independence from their abusers. This can be due, in part, because consumer reports may be used when a person attempts to obtain a checking account, housing, insurance, utilities, employment, and even a security clearance as required for certain jobs. (D) Providing documentation of identity ( ID ) theft in order to dispute information on one’s consumer report can be particularly challenging for those who know their financial abuser. (E) While it is easier for consumers who