Cancer Bills Causing Bad Debt

[Anonymous]

I was diagnosed with cance when I was 21 and a full time student. My parents signed as the responsible party for all of my bills and paid almost all of them in cash. However, after graduation I had to have my credit checked to get an appartment, credit card ect and I found out by surprise that I had collections in my name. This was shocking because 1. My parents signed as the responsible party, 2. we were never sent a bill for all of the items listed, and 3. The collections are not only listed as negative accounts on my report but also my parents. Does anyone know if this is illegal? I have since been working with a repair specialist to try and bring my score up, Transunion hasnt been able to verify any of the debt and has removed all but one negative item. However, equifax and experian are being much more stubborn and have only removed about half of the negative accounts.  How can one reporting agency not verify the debt but the others can?  I am now trying to buy my first home and since I was diagnosed at such a young age I really didnt have any positive credit history. My car was paid for, cell phone bill was in my parents name, and I didnt need a credit card. I now have a prepaid card and am trying to make positive improvments but its taking forever... does anyone know of programs specifically for young cancer patients to help with this type of situation?

[Anonymous]

I am sorry to hear of your situation.

AS far as the stuff on there, you are just going to have to keep fighting to get it corrected.

As far as shwoing up o both reports, yes that is legal, they may have signed some responsibility for it, but you were still of age so they would still show on yours.  Them signing for anything just basically made them "co-signors" of your mdeical debt which was not a smart move.

There are not programs specifically for your situation.  As far as different things being verified, that is not a issue of the the credit agency, but the creditor.  They are sent a notice ot verify the info and have 30 days to respond.  IF they do and show proof, it is verified.  If they do not respond, or do not respond in time, it is not verified and then removed.  Often times because the 30 day period is pretty short, one agency may recieve the info back in time and another one may not (or may bot recieve it at all).  It is just one of the weird things about credit reporitng that there is not a one stop place to get bad info corrected.  One thing.  If it is valid info then it will be hard to remove.  Just becuase youhave no record of it yourself does not necesarily make it a mistake.  So, you need to verify what the debts are and if they are valid, were they paid by insurance or your parents a long time ago, in the mad rush of things did they just not get taken care of (this is pretty common), or are they actually not valid debts.  Then go from there to resolve them either through disputing, contacting the issuing debtee and asking for them removed, or paying them and using the HIPPA process to get it all removed.

[Anonymous]

Thanks,

It doesnt make sence to even have that form that they signed then. How is a 21 year old, who is a full time student supposed to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in bills if they are basically dying? Shouldnt the hospital be held accountable for billing the right person. 18 or not, I didnt have the ability to pay, my parents did, I shouldnt be punished for that or they shouldnt. But we thought we took the right step to protect one or the other, and we both got hurt.

There is one account that is verified, all of the others are not legit.  

It doesnt make sense that they can report something negative on a credit report when I didnt know that they money is owed. I dont have any reccord of being billed, my mom was very organized and kept track of everything. and when we went to appointments we would always ask if there was a balance and if there was everytime cash was paid.

Yet, I have collections in the amount of $5.00, $13.00, and $23.00.  Those are not amounts that wernt paid because I couldnt afford it, the are collections because I was never aware the money was owed. But because of them, I have a terrible credit score.  I have a total of 14 negative accounts and not one is for more than $200 dollars. After $350,000 dollars of medical debt paid in full by insurance and my parents, I can assure you, thoes small amounts were not because of inability to pay, it was because of not being notified.

When Ive called to verify what they are for and if they are valid, no one can give me a straight up answer and cant tell me where they have come from. I have asked for itimized bills but it doesnt match up with the collections because collections doesnt say what service was preformed just what amount is owed.

If you ask the issuing debtee is the hospital or cancer center and they  have already sent the account to collections, is there a way for them to remove the debt from collections? Or isnt it once its sold to the collector its their business. I am willing to pay for anything that is owed and the easiest thing to do would be to pay everything that is on my credit report, but even if its marked as paid it still brings my credit score down and causes financing issues and will for the next 7 years. That is not something I can afford to do, because eventually I will need a home and a new car.

Its important to remember, if this had happened to someone in their 50's or 60's it wouldnt be near as big of a problem because they have already established credit, they would already have bought a home or a car and have a positive history. Yes it would bring their score down but it wouldnt create the hardship it has for me. I mean we are talking to the point that I can even get a regular credit card with a $500 limit just so that I can build a postive history.

Its a never ending hole that I am stuck in.

[mauve]

There's hope.  I would pay them all off, to the OC if possible.  Then I'd look at the HIPAA process - TU is the easiest to deal with in the HIPAA process.  Write to your congressman and senators to support HR 3421 / ask them to re-introduce it, as it's expired.  As written, it would require ALL medical-related collections to be removed from your credit reports within 45 days of payment.  

You can follow the HIPAA process, or you can pay and then send goodwill letters, or you can try for PFDs. 

Once you have them all paid, open some revolving credit. 

[Anonymous]

Well, the bottom line is that you are alwasy repsonsbile for debt you incurr.  IF your parents chose to sing their name on it to then they are equally repsonsible.  It doesn;t make it nice or anything, but that is the reality.  That said, as hard as it looks right now, you should not have that hard of a way around all of this.

Like Mauve said, call all the original creditors and either ask for them to delete them if you pay (most medical companies will) or research and go through the HIPPA process.  It iwll get them removed with some time and elbowgrease.  The key is you will have to pay them.  As far as verifying the debts, they keep copies of the original lettes they sent you.  If they can not show one then you should be able to get it removed.  If they did send it (or have ot on record as being sent), they did their part.  Speaking as someone who had about 400K in medical bills int he last 2 years (fortunately I have very good insurance), there are tons of small things that almost always get lost in the shuffle when there is that much coming and going.  I have found at least 5 bills that either I missed, etc.  Sometimes it can be as much as just the difference in the billing and what the inusrance agrees to pay so they bill you for the difference.