I have a $19 dollar medical collection that I truly don't recognize. It's from a city in which I used to live during the time period the account service date is indicated. I assume it's valid but also genuinely don't know - for $19 dollars I just want it to go away since its arrival hurt.
My question is this - at this dollar value is the whychat method overly aggressive? Can i just call the doctor's office and explain, asking if they wil recall the collection for immediate payment in full? I know healthcare orgs are usually much more understanding about this. Basically, I don't want to go to the mattresses for 19 dollars, i just want it GONE.
Advice?
Starting Score: 578 (3/11/13)
@AbsentMindedProfessor wrote:I have a $19 dollar medical collection that I truly don't recognize. It's from a city in which I used to live during the time period the account service date is indicated. I assume it's valid but also genuinely don't know - for $19 dollars I just want it to go away since its arrival hurt.
My question is this - at this dollar value is the whychat method overly aggressive? Can i just call the doctor's office and explain, asking if they wil recall the collection for immediate payment in full? I know healthcare orgs are usually much more understanding about this. Basically, I don't want to go to the mattresses for 19 dollars, i just want it GONE.
Advice?
I am an advocate of the HIPAA Process but for $19 no, I would call the OC and explain and use a standard PFD instead. Good luck 
Wow. OC told me to pound sand. I explained that I work for a hospital (true) and we commonly PFD on very large sums, constantly pulling things back from collection and they gave me a lecture about paying my copays in about as condescending a manner as you could imagine. Through working at a hospital I'm also very, VERY aware of how common billing errors are, and made that politely clear.
What are my next steps? Do i write a letter to a higher up at the physician group that's PFD?
@AbsentMindedProfessor wrote:Wow. OC told me to pound sand. I explained that I work for a hospital (true) and we commonly PFD on very large sums, constantly pulling things back from collection and they gave me a lecture about paying my copays in about as condescending a manner as you could imagine. Through working at a hospital I'm also very, VERY aware of how common billing errors are, and made that politely clear.
What are my next steps? Do i write a letter to a higher up at the physician group that's PFD?
Well, absurd stance over $19 IMO.... You can try the doc himself or if its the hospital a letter to the administrator... Since their stance is this can also attempt the process, we cant discuss it on this board though so contact the creator of it.
Yeah, at this point I think my best bet is to write the physician group/hospital and try for goodwill via PIF. I am blown away that they would go to these lengths and be so stubborn over a 19 dollar bill.
I sent what I believe was a very reasonable, very measured goodwill letter to the OC asking them to A) validate that it was legit and, if so, B) allow me to pay them directly. This was not an official validation letter or anything to that effect - it was truly a person-to-person goodwill letter pointing out that a 4 year collection dropped on my account and caused my score to plummet nearly 70 points. I had held out high hopes for this working initially but they're gradually diminishing. I'll give it another week or two before I get "official" with this.
Updating this: despite a very reasonable GW letter not only to the business office but also the Corporate Integrity Officer and another executive of a **faith-based** medical system it appears that all the OC did was forward my new and updated contact info to the collection agency, who sent me another fairly standard "pay for this" letter. At this point on principle alone I refuse to bend on this. It's for what was originally a $15.44 service and they seem intent on destroying my financial profile based upon it. I'll happily spend 100 to 1,000 times more on this to make it go away and make it a pain for them to give them a taste of their own medicine. My plan at present:
- Follow a well known across the net program to deal with this
- Failing that, spend several months attempting additional goodwills. During this time I'll research every reporter or blogger in that metro area who has ever done an expose piece on imbalanced medical billing and start funneling this info their way in the event the subsequent goodwills fall on deaf ears.
- As a last resort, I have zero problem hiring an attorney to fight this and at the very least cost them several times more than they'll ultimately get from me.
@polno1234 wrote:thats probably the reason right there that they wont pfd for you. it would cost them more than 19 dollars in man hours to do the paperwork. not all lenders use fico 8 but a good majirity do. http://myfico.com/crediteducation/questions/fico8.aspx a quote directly from here "Small-balance collections accounts Fico 8 ignores small-dollar "nuisance" accounts in which the original balance owed was less than $100" i wouldn't put alot of effort into something that isnt affecting your fico that much.
True, the new models were designed to exclude this exact type of thing.
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@Shogun wrote:
@polno1234 wrote:thats probably the reason right there that they wont pfd for you. it would cost them more than 19 dollars in man hours to do the paperwork. not all lenders use fico 8 but a good majirity do. http://myfico.com/crediteducation/questions/fico8.aspx a quote directly from here "Small-balance collections accounts Fico 8 ignores small-dollar "nuisance" accounts in which the original balance owed was less than $100" i wouldn't put alot of effort into something that isnt affecting your fico that much.
True, the new models were designed to exclude this exact type of thing.
Shogun/Polno1234,
Very good to know and it certainly takes some of the stress off. Still, that said, given how absurd they're being over a $15 payment that I've offered to PIF to the OC and in a PFD scenario, I feel like pushing back to the extent I can. It may be shaking a hornet's nest if and when I get around to it, but for now I'll leave it be for the most part.