Has anyone here actually had success with the HIPAA letter process? Is there...

[Anonymous]

Has anyone here actually had success with the HIPAA letter process? Is there really a legal basis that would force a CA and/or OC from reporting this to the credit bureaus? I've read the legal reasoning on whychat's site, and I just didn't see anything explicit that would confirm this. I really wish that were the case, though, because I have three medical listings on my credit report being reported by CA's, and one being reported by the collections department of the OC. All total, they are less than $500. I would pay that in a heartbeat if I knew they would surely be deleted.

[guiness56]

I think your chances would be 50/50.  Some have had luck, some not so much.  It can be a long process and you have to do exactly what it says in the way it says.

And the HIPAA process is for paid collections to the OC, not the CA.  Though some have had luck there also.

IMO, as long as they report a medical debt in such a way  that it does not disclose what type of treatment you had, they are legally able to report.  Say for instance, the OC was St Joseph's Cancer Treatment Center and that is what is on your report.  That is a no no.  If it just said St Joseph's, its ok.

Another route would be to contact the OC and see if you can pay them and pull back the account from the CA.

[rckstrscott]

JBIM

I have started the HIPAA process on one account this week because they are real insistant on not removing it after its paid, but I have also had luck contacting the OC and asking them to pull back the account.. to be honest I am not really expecting the HIPAA process to work really..  I paid the debt, so this is just kind of a grasping at straws kind of attempted..

So far, based on Guiness' advice, almost all of my good news has come via the OC, so considering contacting them first and talking to someone high enough up the chain to make the CA go away..

-scott