Very old Medical Bills in Collection

[brandie2881]

I have two very old medical bills from 2003 being reported by a collection agency Southern Credit Recovery both are from an emergency room one from me and the other from my daughter at that time I had Insurance through my employer and was not sure if medicaid dropped me yet or not so I gave the hospital both insurance cards the hospital made a claim to medicaid and medicaid denied it but they never made a claim to the insurance company from my employer.. Then they sent bills or letters to notify me to an old address that I did not even live at when I was seen at the hospital. And for my daughters bill she was covered under my insurance with my employer and covered my mediciad and is still covered by the same mediciad till this day the hospital made a claim to the insurance company through my employer and they paid a portion of the bill but the hospital never made a claim to medicaid.. They again sent letters to notify me to an old address that we no longer lived at, at the time she was seen in the hospital.

Any ideas will be greatly appreciated..

[someonesomewhere]

Another good candidate for the 1-2 punch.

DV the CA, dispute with each CRA where the TL appears. If the CRAs delete, you win that round.

[brandie2881]

I sent the collection agency a DV letter and have no received a reply as of yet although they did verify this debt with the CRA's before they even received the DV letter the dispute letter obviously got the the CRA before the DV letter got to the CA.

Should I dispute again or send another DV letter???

Thanks for your help..

[someonesomewhere]

Here's the Admin's DV flowchart. Sounds like you're at Day 31 on this one.

http://www.creditinfocenter.com/rebuild/debt_validation_workflow.shtml

[brandie2881]

I see, this chart looks very useful I am printing at this very moment. Thanks Again..

[dpgirl]

First of all you need to make sure that you actually owe the balance to the hospital. What kind of insurance do you have with your employer, ppo, hmo???

Do you have the explanation of benefits from the insurance company for the payments that they did make? Get these together first as they may be balances that the hospital should be writing off.

There is a sticky under Collections regarding medical collections posted by Retmar.....go in and read it as it is very helpful.

[brandie2881]

Well I no longer have insurance with that company but I did contact the insurance co. and they did assure me that they would have paid a portion of the bill if the hospital would have made a claim in a reasonable amout of time now too much time has passed ( these bills are from 2003 ) the insurance company will not cover any portion of the bill. But no I no longer have any of the insurance information.

[dpgirl]

The insurance company must be able to still look up what kind of policy you had if they were able to tell you what they did.

If you had an HMO or PPO policy and the hospital was/is a contracted provider, then they are bound by that contract to bill, and correctly bill, the insurance in a timely manner. If they do not do this they cannot legally bill you. You really need to find out if this is the case.

[brandie2881]

These collections were removed from my report today!!! But I still want to make sure the hospital has written the charges off.

Thanks for your help!!

[someonesomewhere]

Enjoy the deletes, and don't go poking any hornet nests with a stick.

Keep an eye on your CRs, but don't stir the pot with the hospital or the CRA.

[brandie2881]

You are prob. right, I seem to always do more to hurt myself than I do myself any good.. I will take your advice and leave it at that, besides if its not being reported against me its not really hurting me.