I have several medical bills that are in collection. My question is should I send a PFD letter 1st and then if they don't agree send the HIPPAA letter? Or just skip the PFD letter and go straight for the HIPPAA letter? Any that could help would be greatly appreciated!!
Thanks for your time!!!
Starting Score: 506
the HIPAA process on the site-that-shall-remain-unlinked specifies that you should not have ANY contact with the CA. It seems that HIPAA is pretty successful. I'm currently on step 1 with it, though, so I'm not completely sold yet. (TU deleted with just the pre-HIPAA letter. EX updated one of my CAs as "verified" and with a balance and has "investigating" on the other CA. The one they verified for April should have at least been marked "paid" cause I'd paid the OC 2 weeks prior and was told they update at the end of the month)
Starting Score: EQ 583 TU04 619 EX 592 (lender pull) 2010
My 2 cents would be to start with PFD and keep HIPAA as a last resort.
Reason being there's no real legal basis for HIPAA process, though it does seem to work sometimes.
I didn't want to start off by threatening and possibly upsetting the people (OC, CA) who I basically needed to do me a favor (deletion) - especially since I felt I'd be bluffing with HIPAA, and if they called my bluff I'd be in a worse position (them mad at me and unwilling to negotiate) than if I'd never used HIPAA.
My other concern with the HIPAA process was that even if it succeeded at first, things might pop back up on my credit report. For example, what if a collection account were to be deleted b/c CRB got the pre-HIPAA letter and got scared, but then later realized - or was advised by corporate counsel - that deletion was totally unnecessary and so reinserted the item back into my credit report months later?
Personally, I like the security of putting a collection item to bed once and for all, with no chance of it ever popping back up again. To me, PFD seemed to offer that more than HIPAA. Your mileage may vary!
Edited to add: Mauve is right, PFD with OC, not CA. I'm finding especially with medical collections OC is almost always willing to work something out, even if they initially say no or say it's too late, ya gotta deal with CA. Just keep writing and emailing higher up people at OC; they're in the business of helping people, and eventually you'll find the right person who will agree to work something out. CA, not so much.
Based on a line by line reading of HIPAA.
I also scoured all kinds of secondary guidance on HIPAA and medical collections from HHS, FTC, etc.
Believe me, I wanted to find it - 8 of my 9 collections are medical! It would help a lot.
HIPAA simply does not say anything about requiring medical collections to be deleted after payment.