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Hi All:
I was sued for a medical bill and a judgment was entered in 2010 and my wages were garnished. The debt was satisfied in 2011 and the CA had a release satisfaction of judgment entered. However, the debt is showing on my credit report as an unpaid judgment. My question is can I use the HIPAA laws to have the debt removed or should I just dispute it and send the credit bureaus the release to update my credit report as paid? Thanks for any responses.
HIPAA has express provisions that permit the retention of sufficient information that does no otherwise violate privacy provisions of the act that is related to collection of a medical debt. HIPAA does not explicitly have provisions dealing with deletion of information reported to CRAs based on having paid a medical debt.
There are procedures that are based on interpretations of HIPAA that purportedly require deletion of medical information from consumer reports after the permissible retention based on collection of the debt have expired by payment of the debt. They are untested interpretations of law that are not specifically advocated on this site.
Can you use HIPAA for deletions?
Perhaps, but you will have to get the procedures for any sjuch interpretations elsewhere.
AS for filing a dispute based only on showing of payment of the debt, each CRA has the same policy that information should not be deleted based on payment of the debt, the reporteing by the debt collector relates to the fact that they had, at a prior point, collection authority. Payment of the debt does not negate that fact, and thus there is no inaccuracy in reporting upon which to base a dispute soley due to payment of a debt.
The CRAs have a joint crredit reporting manual that includes the express provision that reporting not be deleted based on payment of a debt, so some basis other than simply payment would be necessary to show error.
Thanks for clearing that up. I would like to have the credit bureau update the account as paid and I recalled from information I received in the past that you can send the release to the credit bureaus and they will note in your report that it has been satisfied and paid. I kind of figured it would not be able to be removed.
I believe what you are looking for is called a "motion to vacate" a judgment.
Then if the judge approves your motion, you can have it removed from your CR.
Thanks!! I will check into seeing if I have grounds to get the judgment vacated. However, I paid it off already by being garnished and it happened four years ago so I don't remember all the details and I kind of doubt it could be but that would be awesome though if I can.