Question on illegitimate medical bill on CR

[atarvuzdar]

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@goodygoody wrote:

Was on the phone all morning trying to deal with this garbage. 

First called the original provider, who claimed that they were never given my son's insurance number - not true.  Called the insurance company, they said yes he had coverage at the time and that this provider actually submitted claims for other services for my son, so it's virtually impossible they didn't have the insurance number.  The insurance woman said it's very likely that they neglected to bill for what's on my CR and decided to just send it to collections in the hopes that I'd just pay it.  So then I had to call the provider back, get a copy of the bill emailed to me, fax it to the insurance company's grievance department, etc etc. 

The one place I haven't called is the creditor that owns the debt now  - don't want them calling me 300 times a day or inadvertently restarting the clock on this bill.  My question now is, does anyone know what happens in a case like this, where the provider is basically lying and saying they were never given insurance and I say they were (and my insurer verifies that there WAS coverage?  I'm not even clear who I appeal to with this.  I've disputed the item on my CR, but afraid that if the company says I didn't give my insurance, the agency will just say I owe the money and keep it on my CR.  If this happens, should I just offer to pay if they'll remove it?  If they agree and send me something in writing, they are legally required to remove it, correct?  I don't want to pay for something covered by insurance, but also don't want my score hit over $161. 

Any idea how much a $161 health bill from 2007 will impact your score?  Our goal is to buy a house with FHA in the next year.  If I don't pay this bill on principle, will FHA insist I pay it anyway before we can get a loan?  

I'm just so disgusted, seriously.  Why are creditors allowed to do this kind of stuff?  I have to take up hours of my life dealing with this and am not even a little bit at fault.  Just mad.   

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The health insurance company I personally work for tends to advocate very strongly on the part of our members. I can't speak for other insurance companies, but my suggestion to you is that you keep in very close contact with your grievance department. If you haven't told them already that this is on your credit report as a collections then I would tell them ASAP. At my company, if we hear that, we pay the bill for the member regardless of any issues with the bill being old. Again, no guarantees, but that's my suggestion. I would also ask the insurance company to pay the bill directly to you and not to the doctor. That way you can negotiate with the doctor/collection agency for a PFD. Again, no guarantees the insurance company can/will do that. They all have their own business practices with this sort of thing.

Lastly, good luck!

[goodygoody]

Assuming the insurance covers it, do I then need to contact the creditor to get them to remove this from my CR?  Or dispute it or what?  Even the "paid" one is showing under collections.  When I asked the woman at the provider to have it removed, she said, "You can't have items removed from your credit report."  She even admitted that it was paid with insurance, and I tried to explain to her that yes, you can remove things you freaking doofus (ok, I left that last bit off), but she kept getting an attitude and said I should call the creditor (which I refuse to do in case they can restart the clock NOW on this).  ARGH.

[goodygoody]

*bump*

[Chris123nTx]

I had a ca do that to me with an almost seven year old lab bill for a couple hundred bucks. Reported it to all three agencies multiple times so within a week my scores dropped over a hundred points.

What happened and is happening with you, is that they bought that account for a few pennies and quickly tried to get you to pay it or part of it. All profit for them. They know that it, worse case, will be removed very very soon because of age, but if they can scare you, and get you to agree to pay them something to make it go away, it will reage the account and you will be screwed.

Dispute it wit the credit report folks, and i they dont delete them then just wait a few months and they will be gon for good. Do not not not pay these peolple at all!!!!

[goodygoody]

So if they reage the account, will that keep it on for another 7 years?   I thought it could only stay on for 7 years from the first date of no payment?  If I can't get the credit agencies to delete and I offer the creditor pay for delete, will that reage the accounts (if the refuse my offer)?  I've been avoiding contacting the creditors like the plague.  I'm worried because this charge is from 2007, so this will stay on my CR until 2014, and my husband and I were hoping to buy a house this year...

[MarineVietVet]

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@goodygoody wrote:

So if they reage the account, will that keep it on for another 7 years? No one can (legally) re-age an account. 

I thought it could only stay on for 7 years from the first date of no payment?  Collections and charge offs can report for up to 7.5 years from the DoFD (Date of First Delinquency) on the OC (Original Creditor) account that led to the collection or CO. Nothing can reset that DoFD.

If I can't get the credit agencies to delete and I offer the creditor pay for delete, will that reage the accounts (if the refuse my offer)?  No it will not.

I've been avoiding contacting the creditors like the plague.  I'm worried because this charge is from 2007, so this will stay on my CR until 2014, and my husband and I were hoping to buy a house this year... Yes unless you get it removed earlier it will report until sometime in 2014 depending on the DoFD. But a lender might only require that it be paid and not removed. But every lender is different. You'll have to ask about that during the application for your mortgage.

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