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I don't know if anyone else has posted a thread about this, so I thought I'd do so. According to a March 18, 2022 article on TransUnion's Website, TransUnion, Experian, and Equifax are making changes to their medical collection debt reporting. Effective July 1, 2022, paid medical collection debt will not longer be included on consumer credit reports. Also, the time period before medical collection debt may be reported to the CRAs will increase from 6-months to one year. Lastly, beginning sometime during the first-half of 2023, medical collection debt under $500 will no longer be reported. Link to article: https://newsroom.transunion.com/equifax-experian-and-transunion-support-us-consumers-with-changes-to-medical-collection-debt-reporting/

I recently received a letter from Phoenix Financial Services notifying me on their intent to collect on some old medical debt. The accounts were previously handled by a different collections agency, and I noticed that out of the blue the accounts dropped from my credit report I check weekly. I also noticed that my FICO score provided by my Discover card went up 90+ points after the collections fell off my report. The date of service for each of the debts listed in the letter range from 05/20/2011 to 07/08/2011. I live in the state of Florida and here the statute of limitations is either 4 or 5 years (through my research I've encountered both numbers). According to the letter, I have 30 days to request a validation of the debt in writing. My question is regarding the statute of limitations. What date is used determine the age of the debt for the purposes of qualifying whether it is in or outside of the statute of limitations. I know I have at least another 2 years for this debt to fall off from my credit report on its own, however, within that time frame I would like to have my credit be as polished as possible. I would be open to negotiating with the new agency before they report to the CRAs, but I would like to see where I stand on the statute of limitations issue for the purposes of bargaining power. Thank you in advance for your help.

Hi there! I've been lurking but I keep getting conflicting information /: I'm also fairly young (21) so I think a lot of it is flying over my head. I found this on creditkarma today, and it shows up on all three of my CRs as of today: PAUL MICHAEL MARKETING SHIEL MEDICAL LABS Oct 20, 2015 Open $175 Account Details Last Reported Jan 22, 2016 Collection Agency PAUL MICHAEL MARKETING Original Creditor SHIEL MEDICAL LABS Status Open Opened Date Oct 20, 2015 Closed Date -- Responsibility Individual Account. Balance $175 High Balance $175 Remarks Medical I opened a dispute with Transunion already under "I don't know what this is" because I'm unfamiliar with what this could be far and have received no letters or mail about it, and I wanted to open disputes with Equifax & Experian but neither site is letting me access my full CR and is asking for me to request a physical copy. I move around a lot so it's possible they're getting red flags from all my different addresses? Should I contact the collections agency or the original creditor for validation? I'm in NY so waiting out the SOL isn't a viable option. I could pay it but I've head paying doesn't remove it from the CR and to try and offer 20% + deletion, but I honestly have no knowledge of why this would be on my report at all. Any guidance would be amazing!

The original creditor was a pathology lab co. my doctor used. Original date of service: 4/7/2013. First Financial Investment Fund V, LLC purchased this delinquent account & referred it to Stoneleigh Recovery Associates who sent me a letter saying I owed them the bill, that I can dispute it and goes on to say I cannot be sued because of the age of the debt. But, the current creditor can report it to the CRA’s. Stoneleigh has already looked at my CR. I contacted the Indiana BBB to file a complaint against the lab hoping to get it back into their hands. (How can it be delinquent if I had never received a bill? But oh, what I now know!) The lab’s lawyer said their in-house billing researched the claim & had billed me in the months of April, May, and June of 2013. This is not true because 3 bills would not have slipped by me. Also, I received an invoice from them in 2012 & paid in full. He further stated I have to go thru Stoneleigh. They also have not billed me for work in 2014 & feel this agency is sitting on that one. From several websites I have found different SOL’s from 3 to 10 years here in LA. I am assuming this is a written contract thru my doctor. I have filed a complaint with our State AG & he is sending them a letter. But, I requested it to be sent to the lab & will now ask them to send it to Stoneleigh also. My insurance co. is also contacting them. I am hoping I don’t have to pay this at all now because I am so angry. I had no idea & am appalled that one does not have to receive a bill to owe money in this great country...I will be contacting/lobbying congress to stop this absurdity. Any advice would be most appreciative. Thank you.

Hello, thank you for reading my post. I'll try to be brief and I hope you can help me. I received a letter/bill from a collection agency in October. Two weeks later I got a letter/bill from the original creditor. I telephoned the OC and they said the bill had gone to collections on September 29th, but they started talking to me about making payment arrangements, so they seem to still "own" the debt. I am desperate to keep my credit report as clean as possible. I'll pay in full immediately if necessary. I don't know whom to pay, I don't know if it has hit my report yet etc. I'm afraid to delay further while I order credit reports, etc. Should I just offer to pay the OC in full? Do I need to try to negotiate a Pay for Delete? Also, this bill is for unpaid Medicare insurance premiums. I was wondering if that means it is a medical bill and won't count on my credit report as per new FICO rules...? I really appreciate the advice of anyone who answers. I'll be glad to clarify anything and anyone is welcome to send me a private message. Thanks so much again.

Hey Friends, Long time board member here with a few questions about paying back Medical Debt vs paying Utilities Debt, both are in Collections. Which is preferable? My Goal: To get this stuff off my CR or best case scenario possible. In short, last year I was in a very bad auto accident (only me, no other cars were involved), and I didn't work for a long time due to bodily and brain injuries and have moved several times since last May. All of this happened while living in Florida, though I am not currently there. Mind you, my Auto Insurance covered 80% of things, leaving me with these. (plus a few more NOT currently in collections, question about that afterwards) I have 2 medical bills in Collections (one for $118 and one for $691) and 2 Utility bills ($157 ATT and $221 Duke Energy). Who should I pay first? I have spoken to both CAs at the Utilities - best I can get is 'Closed, Paid in Full as Agreed' but will not Delete. The CA for ATT ($157) has sent me 2 separate 'pay less' offers, but would likely rather pay the full amount so it is reflected on my CR. I have spoken with the $118 Medical CA and they said that once paid in full, they will delete within 30 - 45 days. Should I get this in writing? I've been hesitant to call the larger of the medical ones for $691 because it's a big one. SEPARATE ISSUE- I have a couple other Medical Bills ($406 AND $1920) that are currently very past due but haven't received bills in months, nor are they currently on my CR. Should I call the Original Creditors in this case to try and work things out, or let them lie for now. I would rather send the OC's $20 a month rather than them hit my CR via a CA. I have had one OC accept this arrangement over a $2200 medical bill. Please friends, I'd like some advice. I'm not as sharp as I used to be here and need a hand. I appreciate comments and thank you for your attention! -RockDaddy

So, first off, let me thank everyone here for the great resource that you provide as I've been trying to get my credit back into the 700's after having a few issues. I did some labor trading with a dentist for labor around 9 years ago when I worked for my old boss doing IT and received a bill shortly after getting the work done in which I was told by the dentist to ignore and that it would never go to collections. I have NEVER signed for anything with this dental office at all but out of the blue I get a $900 collections notice almost 9 years later. This same dentist has now sold his original practice by himself and is in business with another dentist with a different company name. I disputed it with Transunion who just said it was verified with no information past that. I didn't have access to the resource flow chart that I found on this website so my question is should I send a DV notice via certified mail to owner of the debt (C? If so, directly to the original dentist correct? If they don't have anything signed by me and only send back a copy of the bill is that sufficient enough or should I work further down the flowchart? Thank you in advance for your help! EDIT: I should probably specify that I received no notices ahead of time nor phone calls that this would be placed into collections; It just randomly appeared on my credit reports.

Hi, Last summer, I went to the ER and was billed for three services - the ER facility fee, the ER doctor's fee, and the fee for the CT scan I received. My insurance paid the ER facility and ER doctor's fees, but did not pay for the CT scan. My insurance company covers almost everything, and they've never denied a claim before - they're stating that they have never even received the claim for the CT scan, and therefore certainly didn't deny it. I discovered this after it was posted to my CR by a JDB. I contacted the JDB, and they agreed to remove it for 60 days but would place it back on my CR if the bill was not paid by that point. The JDB also stated that they would contact the radiology firm and ask them to *correctly* bill it to my insurance company. I've asked the JDB to send me a copy of the bill so I can attempt to send it to my insurance company to have it rebilled, but they've not sent one to me. The issue is, I'm certain that the radiology firm incorrectly billed my insurance company, and they essentially refuse to rebill them or give me a copy of my statement so that I could have the opportunity to either pay it or send it to my insurance company for reconsideration. I've asked the JDB and the radiology firm (had to email them as they don't have a public phone number) to resubmit the bill to my insurance, but they're both essentially playing dumb and saying that it was declined by my insurance - which again, even if was declined, there's no reason why they can't resubmit it - they're really making it difficult for me and I'm not sure what to do at this point. It's the only negative thing on my CR and I'm really upset about it as all it would take was a simple rebilling to get this situation resolved. Advice?

Hi everyone, I did a search on the forums and was unable to find a scenario like mine. If there is one and I missed it, I apologize in advance for overlooking that. When it comes to my question, it originates from a medical debt collection started in 2011 that, as far as I know, came from me breaking my hand in 2010 and being of legal age. Although I signed all of the medical documents, my parents were going to pay the medical bill as I did not have income to pay for it because I was a full-time student. With that said, my parents accidentally stopped paying the debt (I believe it was being paid for on a charge card and they received new cards), and it eventually ended up on my credit report, resulting in around $1600-$1700 in debt. So, why am I worried about it now that it is almost 2.5 years away from being removed from my credit report? It is because I have a flawless credit history outside of this collection and I honestly want to correct this "mistake" so I can continue on with having my "perfect" credit history. Now that I am graduating college and am possibly looking at moving out soon, I want to be able to have a clean-slate and not run into any issues with my credit history. I am also looking at applying for another credit card or two as my credit score is slightly above 700. Now my question to you friendly folks is this, I have read about settling and seriously pursuing the "pay for delete" route because that is the best case scenario for me, but where do I start?. I have the money to offer a sizable settlement amount, but I do want to try to settle for as low as possible as I know they buy the loan from doctors for pennies on the dollar. As a side note, this debt is still owned by the original CA that filed the delinquency back in 2011. Do I send a letter of validation even though I believe the debt is accurate and all of the notes match up with the original source of debt (the hospital)? If I do and I receive confirmation, do I offer 20% of the debt and work my way up from there? Do I run the risk of having them "reset" the SOL if I try to settle for a pay for delete? I am very serious about getting this removed, and am willing to spend generously if that's what it takes, but I'd rather start low and work my way up from there. This was what I was thinking about saying when I call them, "Hi, “name" I was hoping to be able to speak with someone about being able to settle a collection on my credit report. I inherited debt that I did not know was not being paid, and am hoping to be able to make it right and come to an agreement. As a result of this agreement, I am hoping that we can also agree that this will be a pay for delete settlement and you will contact the credit agencies to have this derogatory mark removed." If you made it through this post, I want to say thank you very much for your time and hope that you can provide me with any advice on how to approach this situation. Having this removed from my credit report would be absolutely amazing for me and my mental "well-being."

We are residents of Orlando, FL and need help with medical debt for lab test. In summary - the test was performed in Nov 2012, and the insurer had pre-approved this out-of-network lab as in-network - the insurer and lab went back and forth over the bill and are still going back and forth over the bill, now with my employer’s HR involved - we never received a bill from the lab, despite us updating our address with them and USPS with our new address - On March 17, 2015, we received notice (dated March 10) from a collection agency for a $19K debt that includes $2600 of interest - The lab claims they cannot take it back from the collections agency - Lab has not responded to a request for the debt amount; instead, they sent a patient ledger dated Apr 8, 2015 that shows patient responsibility of zero for every test; note, they do not have a phone My questions: - Other than a request for debt verification to the collection agency, what should I do? - Who do I negotiate with, the lab or the collection agency? - Does the fact the insurer is still working on it (based on contacting the employer again) have any relevance? - Is there a risk they could damage my credit score? Details: On March 17, we received a letter from a collection agency, claiming medical debt of $ 19k, that is inclusive of an interest amount of $2,600. The lab is located in Atlanta, GA. We received their services (a series of lab tests) for our son in November 2012. I have a family health insurance plan that is self insured by my employer, which is a large corporation, and administered by a TPA insurance company. Although the lab was originally out-of-network for the insurance company, we managed to obtain pre-approval for these services to be given with in-network benefits. In fact, the lab only agreed to perform those lab tests that were preapproved. We were expecting to pay nothing more than any applicable copay, coinsurance, etc. The insurance company denied many of the claims from the lab. The lab ended up filing a large number of appeals to the insurance company, but the claims remained largely denied. In January 2015, the lab turned the account over to the collection agency. The collection agency made their first communication to us on March 17. Pertinently, the lab seems to have turned the account over to the collection agency without sending us any billing statement that indicated that we owed them the sum of money that the collection agency alleged. After getting the letter from the collection agency, we promptly wrote them back, disputing the debt, mentioning that no statement was sent to us, and asking the collection agency to validate the debt by providing relevant documents. We are still awaiting the validation documents from the collection agency. Then we contacted the lab by mail and email (they don’t accept phone calls), basically asking that we resolve the issue with them directly and not the collection agency. In reply, the lab alleged that they sent it to our address. We have a hard time believing that because we moved to a new address in June 2013 but updated both the lab with our new address and USPS. Furthermore, despite communicating them with E-mail frequently, they never replied that way (granted, billing is often handled by a third party company) or called us. The lab also mentioned that they cannot retract the account from the collection agency but can request them to not report my credit account as we work on resolving the issue. Pertinently, the lab did not send us a statement indicating the debt amount even as we emailed them with a request to send it to us. Instead, they sent us an itemized patient ledger dated April 8, 2015 showing every lab test that was done, along with the cost, amount paid by insurance and patient responsibility. Interestingly, the patient ledger shows zero amount in the patient responsibility field for each of the test and does not indicate any overall patient responsibility. In short, the patient ledger does not validate the debt amount being claimed. At this time, we are unable to decide in which direction to pursue the matter. What options do we have now? The collection agency has not reported to the credit bureau yet. I am willing to make a settlement for a fraction of the original debt, say up to 30% (give or take), with the collection agency. However, should I hold off because the debt may not be theres. Or should I negotiate with the lab? My fear is they already turned if over to the collection agency. And what if the insurance company does pay off the provider? I would appreciate any help

I have 2 medical collections ($259 and $104). I sent a DV and C&D. I have also disputed with the CRA's. After doing this, I also noticed that next to where it has the original creditor (which was a medical lab), it says in parenthesis 'retail'. This is not a retail account so I'm wondering if it's being reported as one (as opposed to medical, which apparently doesn't impact score as much) If they don't delete with my previous 'not mine' dispute, should I do another dispute since it's says it's retail? The good thing is that it's only on TU so it's not too bad, but I want it gone!!

We are residents of Orlando, FL and need help with medical debt for lab test. In summary - the test was performed in Nov 2012, and the insurer had pre-approved this out-of-network lab as in-network - the insurer and lab went back and forth over the bill and are still going back and forth over the bill, now with my employer’s HR involved - we never received a bill from the lab, despite us updating our address with them and USPS with our new address - On March 17, 2015, we received notice (dated March 10) from a collection agency for a $19K debt that includes $2600 of interest - The lab claims they cannot take it back from the collections agency - Lab has not responded to a request for the debt amount; instead, they sent a patient ledger dated Apr 8, 2015 that shows patient responsibility of zero for every test; note, they do not have a phone My questions: - Other than a request for debt verification to the collection agency, what should I do? - Who do I negotiate with, the lab or the collection agency? - Does the fact the insurer is still working on it (based on contacting the employer again) have any relevance? - Is there a risk they could damage my credit score? Details: On March 17, we received a letter from a collection agency, claiming medical debt of $ 19k, that is inclusive of an interest amount of $2,600. The lab is located in Atlanta, GA. We received their services (a series of lab tests) for our son in November 2012. I have a family health insurance plan that is self insured by my employer, which is a large corporation, and administered by a TPA insurance company. Although the lab was originally out-of-network for the insurance company, we managed to obtain pre-approval for these services to be given with in-network benefits. In fact, the lab only agreed to perform those lab tests that were preapproved. We were expecting to pay nothing more than any applicable copay, coinsurance, etc. The insurance company denied many of the claims from the lab. The lab ended up filing a large number of appeals to the insurance company, but the claims remained largely denied. In January 2015, the lab turned the account over to the collection agency. The collection agency made their first communication to us on March 17. Pertinently, the lab seems to have turned the account over to the collection agency without sending us any billing statement that indicated that we owed them the sum of money that the collection agency alleged. After getting the letter from the collection agency, we promptly wrote them back, disputing the debt, mentioning that no statement was sent to us, and asking the collection agency to validate the debt by providing relevant documents. We are still awaiting the validation documents from the collection agency. Then we contacted the lab by mail and email (they don’t accept phone calls), basically asking that we resolve the issue with them directly and not the collection agency. In reply, the lab alleged that they sent it to our address. We have a hard time believing that because we moved to a new address in June 2013 but updated both the lab with our new address and USPS. Furthermore, despite communicating them with E-mail frequently, they never replied that way (granted, billing is often handled by a third party company) or called us. The lab also mentioned that they cannot retract the account from the collection agency but can request them to not report my credit account as we work on resolving the issue. Pertinently, the lab did not send us a statement indicating the debt amount even as we emailed them with a request to send it to us. Instead, they sent us an itemized patient ledger dated April 8, 2015 showing every lab test that was done, along with the cost, amount paid by insurance and patient responsibility. Interestingly, the patient ledger shows zero amount in the patient responsibility field for each of the test and does not indicate any overall patient responsibility. In short, the patient ledger does not validate the debt amount being claimed. At this time, we are unable to decide in which direction to pursue the matter. What options do we have now? The collection agency has not reported to the credit bureau yet. I am willing to make a settlement for a fraction of the original debt, say up to 30% (give or take), with the collection agency. However, should I hold off because the debt may not be theres. Or should I negotiate with the lab? My fear is they already turned if over to the collection agency. And what if the insurance company does pay off the provider? I would appreciate any help

I've just recently stepped into this hell of credit repair. DIY I'm sure I will have more questions, but may I start with this one: Pulled my husband's credit, 13 derrogitory, 10 of the 13 are medical 3 of these accounts are to the same creditor, Senex Services. A collection agency $6987 $1575 $332 It shows the date opened as: 12/20/13 for all 3, which is confusing to me because I know for certain he's not visited that hospital from at least Jan 2012 on. Perhaps a few years before? Can anyone suggest a good plan of action? We can afford to pay off 2 of them, but not the 7k one. Do I offer to settle for delete? Settle for a "nice" notation on credit file? Ignore? Dispute? Is this going to be more difficult because there are 3 of them? Or easier?

Hi guys, first time here. I live in a small town in Washington and my resources here seem to be very limited. I've never been sued before but I received a summons yesterday for 3 different medical bills rolled into one, totally 298 dollars (can they even do that?). I called the collection agency (Armada), scared to death, and was ready to pay the 427 dollar bill that it had increased to. However the woman told me, since it was now filed with the court I also had to pay attornies fees and so forth, now totally 841 dollars (i'm pretty sure it doesn't cost $400 to file a complaint). I know it may not sound like much, but I feel like I'm being bullied and robbed here. I've read that 85-95% of these cases end in default judgment becasue the defendants never reply to the summons. So I decided to stand up for myself. I've googled all of my questions and can't find anything for WA State law. A few questions I have are: 1. I wanted to do a general denial in the answer to force them to provide proof of services and that they legitmatley have claim to the debts, should I also file a sworn denial at this time? 2. Do they need to provide a copy of the actual evidence, like my signature on the intake form, what services were rendered, and so forth? (was that stuff supposed to be with the summons?) 3. When do I file motions? Before or after the answer? (what motions would I file, discovery?) 4. If this goes on, does it cost them more money or will I eventually have to pay even more attornies fees if I lose? 5. If this does go to trial and they do have the documents I requested, what then? Go through with it anyway and hope that the judge may reduce the total amount owed? 6. Is there anything I should do before hand (even if its a longshot) to make sure its still on the table after my answer (e.g. motion to dismiss, affirmative defenses, counterclaims etc.) I'm really just hoping that they find all this not worth their time, and maybe even settle for something much less. Is that realistic or wishful thinking? Thank you guys so much.

I have a question about breaking a lease for medical reasons. I went to visit my daughter and while there i had a medical issue. As a result i couldnt go back to Texas, where my apartment was. Im currently in Tennessee. I didnt know i was in collections until i looked st my credit report. I got no notification at all from anyone. What can i do about this collection? Ive never had this issue before. Never had credit problems like this. Thanks for any guidance

Has anyone come across a medical debt that could be sent to arbitration? I ask because I'm trying to take stock of all my options. I'm trying get a medical debt away from the clutches of a collection company.

I have two medical accounts with the same hospital, one from 2009 and the other from 2010. I have already DV'd both accounts and they came back verified. My problem now is how to go about settling both accounts. The largest of the two accounts has a current past due amount of $7200 with an original balance of $5000 which they tacked on $1200 in interest. Originally I was planning on sending a settlement letter to Progressive management, the CA, however I chose to call them instead and see if I could settle with them for a lower amount via phone. They did inform me that they were in fact NOT the owners of the debt and that the hospital was still the OC. They were not very willing to work with me on the debt at all and only willing to negotiate a small portion of the interest they had tacked on. I didn't argue with them, or even make an offer on what I was willing to pay as I did not want to stir up to much trouble until I was prepared to settle completely. I decided I would call the OC and upon doing so I have now found out that the hospital does not keep any records of their debt after a certain number of years and referred me back to the CA. Now I'm not really sure where to go from here. Do I send a settlement letter to the CA offering a lower settlement, or do I somehow try to settle with the OC? It was my understanding that most CA's would generally be a little more forgiving when working with medical debt, however this does not seem to be the case. I can only afford to pay a small percentage of the original debt, but I'm not sure how I can make that happen. Any insight would be appreciated! Thanks!, Josh

I sent a DV to a CA reporting a medical bill. This is an ER bill back in 2010 that was supposed to be charged off by the hospital to their charity care. I was unemployed and uninsured at that time. I disputed with CRA and came back verified. Today, I received letters in the mail from the CA. Letter #1: - Addressed to me and my ex-husband to my address since 2008. - Ex-husband has never lived at this address. The divorce was finalized in 2009. - The Amount due is $400 more than the amount due on the CR. - Basically just says they received the dispute from a CRA and advised that the info is valid and will remain unchanged. Letter #2 - Response to my DV. - attached is an itemized bill of EVERYTHING that was done in the emergency room. Including type of ultrasound done, drugs administered and laboratory tests done. - It also indicates "Self Pay Adjustment" that I never actually paid. - It reflects the balance/amount due as the same amount reported on CR. I sent a CMRR letter to the hospital too but have yet to receive a response from them. I basically told them that this is a billing error and should have been charged to their charity care and provided unemployment records to support my claim. Is there a HIPAA violation here? What steps should I take next? Thank you for all the help.

I was wheeled into the OR, knocked out, and woke up about a half hour later in recovery. Obviously no surgery had been performed and the doctor came in to say he chose to cancel the surgery since the wrong surgical kit had been set up by the surgical technicians. No one except the anesthesiologist sent any bills to me or to my insurance carrier. I declined to pay the anesthesiologist, pointing out this was the hospital's error, and none of the other professionals nor the hospital had billed me. The response was basically, so what, the doctor did his job. OK, I get that. But the bill is now with a collection agency who is trying all the usual annoying methods to get the money. Since no bills were submitted to my insurance carrier from the hospital, pathologist or any other misc. professional they don't seem to understand the problem, and simply applied the agreed-upon fee for the service to my deductible. (The doctor was an in-network provider.) Is this bill really my responsibility? It seems like verifying the contents of the surgical kit before wheeling a patient into the OR should be a necessary and standard procedure, and if the contents were unsatisfactory to the surgeon that should be the responsibility of the hospital. Any advice or language I can use to deal with this would be appreciated.

Medical company filed in court on 7/13/2011 (didn't even know about this, just saw it today) a disposition was filed on 2/7/2012 - dismissed by parties - 1>doesn't this mean the case was dismissed? The charges from the medical company show up on my credit report under an attorney's name - I sent the attorney letter of validation and they sent me a medical billing statement. (this was done prior to my knowledge about the above referenced court filing- sent letter 4 months ago) 2>Being that the company's claim was dismissed shouldn't this information be deleted from my credit report? 3>If so, is the attorney's office/medical provider in any violation? 4>Should I send disposition to CR's to have it removed from report? Thanks a bunch

Hospital called me and said I needed to pay bill by end of day or it would go to collections. Gave them by credit card, got the confirmation #, payment showed up online and balance on account was $0.00. Now I'm getting a collections agency letter for the account and the amount I owed. Confirmed with hospital that account is zero and paid in full, but the subcontractors that do billing screwed something up and still sent to CA. They can't figure out what to do about it. Should I send a dispute letter to the CA with the payment confirmation information and statement from the hospital? Or should I send a goodwill to discuss what happened? I'm in Louisiana and new to all of this. Thank you.

I am posting for a co-worker. She was in the hospital for kidney infection while pregenant. The bill was $28,000 and insurance only covered 90%. She tried to work it out with the Hospital but they got rid of the Debt and now PISA is sending her the bill. They called her and told her that they were collecting the debt and she needed to pay it off immediatly. They also informed her that she could just use her Credit card that has $XXXXX creidt available on it. She told them no and has sent off at least 2 $100 checks to them. I informed her to stop what she was doing and I would get her some help on this. My main question is did they pull her Credit illegally to gain the info on her credit card and its limit? She is going to be pulling her reports in the beggining of June to see what they are reporting. I told her to see if there was an Inquiry from this CA. I have also directed her to this site and am trying to give her a hand on getting this sorted out. What would yall sugest she do in the terms of letters being sent off? Thanks, Dwright19

I recently got a bill for 2K in ER bills couple months ago, and I JUST received almost $20K in ER for another stay from earlier this month. I plan on talking to patient resources tomorrow, but I want to know all my options and best way to proceed. I definitely do not plan on doing this anymore and am kicking myself for not having health insurance as it would have been much easier to just take care of it that way. Now, whats done is done, i definitely will be more careful. Is this worth declaring BK for? I have been unemployed last two years, and recently got a job. I do not want my employer to find out, I am on a 1099 and create my own business and leads through sales and am just starting to get some traction so i know i can do a good job. However I am already in debt and paying off credit card debt from college, and do not know what to do. any advice would be helpful (btw, I think this is the right forum to be posting on?)

Just received a call from State Collection Service Inc regarding a medical debt. The debt is a result of an insurance complication (my insurance rejected the original claim because I had not yet submitted the form that states that I do not have any other insurance. They were supposed to reprocess the claim once I submitted the appropriate paperwork. I was waiting for an updated bill from the OC but instead I got the collections call). So not sure if that matters, but technically the debt is mine and it's minor (under $100) and I have no issue paying it off, but I want to make sure that I'm not being naive and screwing myself over. The collector said that her company does not report to the CRAs until the account has been with them for more than 60 days (and mine has only been there for a few days), so if I pay right away I will avoid any issues with my report. I asked her if she could provide that policy promise in writing and she said that they do not have it in writing, but that all calls are recorded (great, how does that help me?) and that her company is very reputable and she would not risk her job or the company's reputation by telling me something that is not true. Now this all sounds like balogna to me but I don't want this to drag out any longer than it has to and I certainly don't want any damage to my CR. So my questions are: 1. Should I try to contact the OC and see if I can get the account pulled back from collections given the insurance situation (is that even possible?), or should I just pay the CA right away? 2. Is the 60 day policy real? Should I press to get it in writing before I pay? Thank you in advance!

Anyone know of any good articles, outside of the first 10 pages of an internet search, on medical billing fraud. I have some collections from a few years ago. These collections might be from legitimate bills. However, the reason they weren't paid is likely due to some insurance fraud on the part of a former doctor of mine. The fraud looks like this: He reported charges WAAAY higher to my insurance agency than me, to the tune of $1400 per 15 minute session. That quickly drained my yearly maximums. However, when I went in it was the usual co-pay of $20. There was never a mention of an outstanding balance, or a request for payment from me. There was also never any collections on his part. I suddenly got notice before one appointment that he was no longer with that clinic. I went back to see another doctor and mentioned the discrepancies and he basically said, "He was involved in some funny stuff and I'm part of the reason he's no longer here." So, after his obscene charges other medical services I had ended up in default. I'm would just like to see if I have any legal protections... Thanks.