@Anonymous wrote:I worked for many years in the "Business Office" of a large hospital and can offer some advice. However, each hospital has their own billing practices and procedures so I don't know if some or all of my suggestions will apply to your situation.
First, let me offer a crash course in medical billing. Any medical facility or hospital or doctor's office has 365 days from the date of service to submit a claim to your insurance company. Once your insurance has CORRECTLY processed the claim, paid the hospital and provided them with an EOB (a statement of why they paid what they did and how much you owe), then the hospital will bill you that amount. This process normally takes 30-45 days, but if any problems arise from your insurance company, it can take months and months. As a courtesy, my hospital typically will not bill the patient what would be their portion if a year has past. Bills do not necessarily come to you in the order of the dates you received care - they are sent as your insurance pays. Some states have laws about how late a hospital bill can be sent to you. Our billing system will send out 5 statements to a patient, one each month, then the balance goes to collections automatically if not paid - no actual person looks at the account and decides to send it off to a CA. We also will not allow the CA to report on anyone's CR.
So here's what I'd do if I were you:
1. Make sure 100% that you truly owe the $100. Contact the hospital billing office and ask them to send you a list of all charges (dates of service AND amounts) they sent to your insurance, a list of any and all payments YOU made on your account, and a copy of the bill(s) they mailed you (these should have the original billing dates on them). Getting all this on paper is crucial, to ensure you have proof if you need it later on. If they refuse, move up the chain to a supervisor, manager, etc. Some hospitals have "patient advocates" that could also help potentially.
One piece of advice - act friendly and don't bring up collections or how you potentially never got billed. If they ask why you need the info, just say it's for your records FOR "TAX PURPOSES." If the customer service reps at the hospital think you're not trying to make a case of their potential mistake, they'll be A LOT more helpful.
2. At the same time you're waiting on the hospital paperwork, get copies of all the EOBs from your insurance company. You can use these to match up what the hospital says. If your insurance company has a website where you can access your account information, you can probably find them there.Again, your request is for "TAX PURPOSES."
3. Review your insurance policy to find out your deductibles, coinsurance amounts, copays, out of pocket maximums, and so forth. You want to make sure you know exactly what you should have had to pay as some insurance companies "miscalculate" these numbers.
4. After you get the ALL paperwork, go through and match up what the hospital says vs what the insurance company says. If anything is unaccounted for, such as a bill sent to you from the hospital that was never processed by your insurance company. It's a real pain and takes forever to go through all of the charges, but in the end if there's a problem, you've covered all your bases.
5. Make sure all your payments have been applied to your account. If the hospital shows you owed $500 total for that year and that they received payments from you that total $700, then obviously there's a problem. Likewise, if your insurance company shows you owed $200 total for that year and you were billed for $500, then obviously the hospital has some accounting problems.
6. If you truly DO owe the $100 and did not pay it, contact the hospital again, but go directly to management. Explain that you simply missed the bill due to the volume of bills that you were getting from your treatments and that (I assume) you had more critical issues at the time, specifically getting treated for CANCER. As them if they will let you pay that $100 to them (the hospital) and if they can contact the CA and have them remove the file from your CR as they would no longer have the debt. If you come off as simply trying to resolve a problem without blame to the hospital, the higher-ups at the hospital tend to be more helpful, mostly to improve their image.
7. Likewise, if you do NOT owe the $100, contact the hospital's higher-ups and exlain the situation politely and ask them to correct your account and make sure the debt isn't reported on your CR any longer. If they won't, the BBB can be super helpful.
8. If the hospital cannot provide any proof that they billed you, again, talk to a higher-up at the hospital to fix it. Again, don't play the "blame game" or you'll never get resolution. If they won't, again, the BBB can be super helpful.
9. If you DO owe the $100 and the hospital billed you correctly and will not work with you on getting it paid and removed from your CR, then I'd send a letter to the CA asking if they would delete the file if you paid in full immediately. If they won't, there's not much you can really do unfortunately except agree to pay and have them update to "paid" on their reporting.
Last piece of advice: keep a list of every person you talk to; names, dates, phone numbers, extensions, and a brief summary of what each call was about. BUT try to do as much as you can on paper with regards to the CA.
Ultimately though, a $100 medical bill that has been paid showing on your CR really shouldn't have too much impact when a potential creditor looks at it from what I know. I doubt a tiny amount like that, that was paid quickly and paid in full, wouldn't raise any huge red flags. You might also consider adding a comment on your CR about it.
Thank you for your in depth response. I've already confirmed today that I owe the $100. Before I call the CA again, I am going to call the hospital first and follow the steps that you instructed. If they are unwilling to work with me, I will then move onto the CA and go from there.
I'll keep you posted 
Wonderful ending to the story, celtic. And ravendansk1031 what a wealth of information you provided; that lead to the resolution of celtic's issue. Superb advice which I have copied and pasted into a Word document for future use, if necessary.
@celticslegends wrote:
I want to thank you very much, as I used #6 above (which was the truth) and the hospital was able to rescind the $100 from the CA and as a one time courtesy allowed me to pay them the money and removed the info from my credit report. I did just as you recommended and it was a success! I was friendly, took responsibility and waited patiently while the nice lady waited for an approval from her supervisor. Thanks again!
No problem 
glad I could help!
@IncrsCreditScore wrote:Wonderful ending to the story, celtic. And ravendansk1031 what a wealth of information you provided; that lead to the resolution of celtic's issue. Superb advice which I have copied and pasted into a Word document for future use, if necessary.
Just make sure you give me the credit. I should have that lengthy novel of an answer published in book form...
@Anonymous wrote:
@IncrsCreditScore wrote:Wonderful ending to the story, celtic. And ravendansk1031 what a wealth of information you provided; that lead to the resolution of celtic's issue. Superb advice which I have copied and pasted into a Word document for future use, if necessary.
Just make sure you give me the credit.
You should. myFICO should paste it as a sticky. Without your help, I would have kept calling the bill collector company angry. But with your help, I was able to find great success. Thanks so much.