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Hello Everyone,
I'm new to this forum, and I have a question regarding past due medical bills. In 2009, I was injured in a auto accident. Due to the accident, I was unable to work for over a year. I was able to receive medicaid to help with regular medical bills, while no-fault was used for accident related medical expenses. I'm currently awaiting judgment for Social Security Disability insurance, so I don't have much of an income. However, when I checked my credit report last week, I noticed that I have over $2000 in unpaid medical bills. I requested itemized bills from the medical provider, but I did not receive them yet. I'm not sure what happened, but my theory is, the medical providers tried to charge medicaid for accident related expenses, therefore, medicaid denied the claims. I called my no-fault adjuster, and she said to fax all the medical bills when they arrive from the providers. I was told by a close friend that unless a medical bill is reported to the insurance company or adjuster within 45 days of treatment, they will not be paid. I have these bills on my report and in collects. What can I do, if I am unable to get them paid by no-fault?
It appears that you have debt now under collection for which the final indebetness on your part is still undetermined.
You can, if the debt collector never sent dunning notice, or if they did, less than 30 days has expired from their dunning notice, send them a DV request, thus causing them to cease active collection on the asserted debt until they provide verification of the asserted debt. However, it appears that they have some basis for considering the debt valid based on the assurance from the creditors that they consider the debt valid. In providing debt verification, they are not required to provide any proofs, they are simply required to obtain verification from the alleged creditor, and pass that determination on to you. So I would expect debt verification. For the very reason that they dont have to provide proof in order to verify, any verification they provide to you is not considered proof of anything.
So it would appear that determination on your side of the established amount of your indebetness would be prudent prior to entering any negotiations to pay the debt.
They could, if the statute of limitations has not expired, choose to initiate legal action, but if they are aware that the amount of the debt is unclear due to lack of final accounting from all the medical providers and insurers, I doubt that they would drag all that baggage into court. Cheaper and easier for them to also await final accounting.
I looks like quick resolution of indebtedness is required.
I hope the medical providers and insurors are aware of your pressing need.........
I have another question. If medical bills are already in collections, is it advantageous to pay them. The negatives will not be taken off my credit report, to my knowledge, so, should I pay them?
If they are already in collections, then no, just paying them will not help your score. You would need to try for a PFD to have them removed.