2 medical debts turned over to collection agencies...Help

[aggie04ci]

Here's my story (its long, but bear with me as I'm clueless):

My wife and I were on a not-so-great insurance when my daughter was born in Jan of 04. We ended up getting hit with about $3000 out-of-pocket medical expenses divided into 4 separate payees.

2 of the bills we were able to make satisfactory payments each month to. One we've now paid off completely, the other we are still submitting monthly payments to the doctor.

The other 2 were turned over to collection agencies. One was turned over immediately. We never received a bill or anything from the doctor. We've been making small monthly payments to this agency for months now. The other one (the hospital) required us to make monthly payments that were too large for what we could do. We tried negotiating, but got nowhere. We tried to get an address to send payments too, but were told that unless we submitted the amount they required....we'd have to keep our own records of payments. Next thing we know one of the small payments we sent was sent back as a "wrong address". We weren't able to get them to send us a bill or correct address after that.

So for a few months we didn't submit any payment and heard nothing. Now the hospital sent us a letter last week saying they were turning our debt over to a "Doctors Reporting Service of Texas" collection agency.

With our upcoming tax refund, we may be able to pay off the two bills that are going to DCA's in full. Problem is, I don't know how to handle this situation. I checked for the first time today my wife's and my credit reports with Experian and TU. Neither report showed any mention of collection problems or collection debt for either of us. Both our credit scores were pretty good (~700-730).

Any clue why our reports aren't showing the collection debts? Its been months since the one was turned over. Since I've been lucky so far, can I pay the remaining balance in full to the DCA's in order to forever keep this off my record, or is there a chance it could still later show up even if I pay it all now?

Someone once mentioned I should contact the hospital/doctor for the 2 that are now under the DCA's and offer to pay them directly the remaining balance if they promise to take this off my record. Since its not on my record as of yet, is this an option?

Can any of you experts help tell me what best to do in my situation and how best to pay this balance off to keep it off my record forever?

[divemedic]

I would offer to pay the Dr and hospitals in full in exchange for recalling the account from the CA and not reporting it to your CR. Keep it off your CR at all costs

[aggie04ci]

so you think I should bypass the CA and try to get a deal with the OC? If so, do I need to ask them to send me something in writing before I pay actually pay?

Won't this anger the CA if I pay the hospital directly and cause them to give my name to the Credit Reporting Agencies, since they obviously haven't done so yet?

[divemedic]

As a part of the deal, get ahold of the OC's and tell them you thought your insurance paid this and tell them you want this taken care of without hurting your credit. Offer to pay, but make it a condition of full payment of the accounts that they call off the CA. The CA can't report an account if the OC is telling them they are no longer assigned and isn't providing account info.

NEVER PAY OR DEAL WITH A CA!!! I cannot stress that enough. You will get cheated every time.

[reno2360]

Do not EVER worry about angering a CA... they don't worry about angering you.

The one good(?) aspect of medical collections is generally the willingness of the OC to accept payment. Send the hospital/medical provider payment directly and make the payment/check/money order... whatever out to the OC. You may be able to use that as leverage if ever in the future the CA should report it to a CRA. You will have evidence that the payment was accepted and cashed by the medical provider and NOT the CA. As far as you are concerned you never heard of or were contacted by the CA. So if these accounts ever show up you can dispute them - even if they show up as paid - by having evidence that you paid the OC.

Save the cancelled check or money order.

My other two cents is just how ridiculous it was that this hospital was unwilling to work with you in order to facilitate a reasonable payment schedule.