Medical bill - If insurance was supposed to pay, and will, should the collection stay on CR?

[Anonymous]

Short-term lurker (thanks for the help so far!), first time poster.

I Have 6 medical bills in collection, but ownership of the debt is with the medical bllings. I starting to call the doctors to see if I can start paying them back directly, to whch they agreed. They also said (without me asking) that they are willing to assist me in reducing those black marks on my reports. Great, Yay! 

When I was calling about the last 2 bills in collection (both from the same company), they said that my charity care (embarrassing, but I could only afford insurance for the kids) should have covered both of those bills and  that I should send them the charity care letter and the bills would be fully paid. This company indicated that they would be happy to do whatever they could to remove the collection, since the bill should have been covered in the first place.

tl;dr - 2 medical collectons should not be on my credit reports. if the original doctor's office is in agreement with removal for two  collections that never should have been there, what is the best way to make sure it happens? TIA 

ETA: Corrected spelling and grammar issues. Don't need to look any stupider than I already am...  ;-D

[RobertEG]

The new CRA policy, as announced in their "National Conumer Assistance Program," is to delete any collection that you can show was paid by a medical insuror.

The criterion is that it is paid by a medical insuror, not simply that it was "supposed to be paid."

[Anonymous]

Sorry for being obtuse, but I'm not sure what you mean. The hospital I used during the two mentioned visits covered all care received at the hospital on those days at 100%. This was after applying for and beng granted this assistance through the private hospital (not the state) . The hospital applied the care (documented by the hospital with both parties signing) to all of the visits  from those two days (both were different trrauma injuries) and I was sent around to different to different departments to be checked out. All visits  were paid by the hospital through their internal biling system.  These two visits were overlooked by the hospital. Now that I have brought it to the attenton of the hospital, they assured me that it  should have been paid through their system at the time, and that they are going to bill themselves the way they were supposed to in the begnning. This was not my error.

The other 4 collection bills ARE completely my fault, 100%. 

Just for a little levity, I will say one time it was because I almost poked my eye out with a sharp stick. That saying - I'd rathar poke my eye out that than (whatever awful thing you don't  want to do) - I might avoid taking that at face value.

Get it?

Face value?

Ahhh, I'm a dork. 

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Sorry for being obtuse, but I'm not sure what you mean. The hospital I used during the two mentioned visits covered all care received at the hospital on those days at 100%. This was after applying for and beng granted this assistance through the private hospital (not the state) . The hospital applied the care (documented by the hospital with both parties signing) to all of the visits  from those two days (both were different trrauma injuries) and I was sent around to different to different departments to be checked out. All visits  were paid by the hospital through their internal biling system.  These two visits were overlooked by the hospital. Now that I have brought it to the attenton of the hospital, they assured me that it  should have been paid through their system at the time, and that they are going to bill themselves the way they were supposed to in the begnning. This was not my error.

The other 4 collection bills ARE completely my fault, 100%. 

Just for a little levity, I will say one time it was because I almost poked my eye out with a sharp stick. That saying - I'd rathar poke my eye out that than (whatever awful thing you don't  want to do) - I might avoid taking that at face value.

Get it?

Face value?

Ahhh, I'm a dork. 

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The translation is as follows:  Once the bills are actually paid, they should, if not removed by the original creditor, be removed by the CRA.

Clarification:  This only applies to the bills you do not pay yourself

[Anonymous]

Thanks so much, TygerHawk. I really appreciate your answer. It will be super nice to have those removed. Next up: The 4 that I am reponsible for. Lucky for me, those bills  were not sold to collectins, they hired collections to collect. Once I figured that out, I called the doctors to arrange payng the bills one at a time. Not payment plans, I will go  to the offce and pay them, one bill at a time. They said for each bill I took care of, they would be more than happy to help me fix the black marks on my CRs. I'm heading in sometime in the next two weeks to pay the 1st one. Baby steps...

ETA: New keyboard because  mine broke. It sucks. I am not as stupid as my keyboard is makingme seem. This is going back. Even  the space bar is screwy.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Thanks so much, TygerHawk. I really appreciate your answer. It will be super nice to have those removed. Next up: The 4 that I am reponsible for. Lucky for me, those bills  were not sold to collectins, they hired collections to collect. Once I figured that out, I called the doctors to arrange payng the bills one at a time. Not payment plans, I will go  to the offce and pay them, one bill at a time. They said for each bill I took care of, they would be more than happy to help me fix the black marks on my CRs. I'm heading in sometime in the next two weeks to pay the 1st one. Baby steps...

ETA: New keyboard because  mine broke. It sucks. I am not as stupid as my keyboard is makingme seem. This is going back. Even  the space bar is screwy.

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Sounds like a great plan - just make sure to get a commitment to remove the items from your reports in writing BEFORE YOU PAY

If you pay before you get a clear commitment to fix the problem, you've just removed most of the motivation TO fix the problem

[Anonymous]

Very true, and definitely something I will plan  on! 

I just graduated with a MA in Teaching (high school bio, who-hoo! Fun age when they aren't yours...), and will finally be making somemoney and be able to knock this stuff off bit by bt. I'm in the low 600's right now, and am aming for 720 by 2018. Lucky for me, I have a long credit history with much of it being positive, but life completely fell apart for our family in 2012. The kids and I had to move out due to the bad situatioon at home, and since 1/2015 've been trying to piece my credt back together. Now that I'm a single mom, with an ex who doesn't always think child support is such a great idea, who just finished school at 43, I know I have to build strng credit.

Ugh. Time to pull ot the laptop. I cannot stand the mstakes

[LLMel]

Hang in there... Your story is inspiriing and it wasn't so long ago I was in your situation myself. Like you, I'm also a long time lurker and newer poster. What surprised me about getting out from under all my single mom / dead-beat ex financial nightmare history was that rebuilding my credit actually started to be fun.

I have learned so much from these forums and have put what I've learned to good use, and it didn't take long at all. I still have a very short credit history (my credit was so bad I didn't even bother applying for credit until around 2008), and that's the one thing I can't change. But everything else that I've learned here has helped me to chisel away at my bad decisions and turn things around for the better. Much better!

 All the best. 

[Anonymous]

It does feel great! He was pretty bad at making financial choices. 

Thank you so much for the kind words. It's been tough but I am seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. Life is already better.

Also, Guess what? One of the bills that the hospital should have paid is already completely removed from my Transunion report. That is the only credit bureau the collection agency reported to. 

1 down, 5 to go...

[Anonymous]

Never too late! Congrats!