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Hi there!
Recently did my yearly free credit reports. I don't have any lates or other bad stuff, except 2 medical bills that are not correct. They are from 2005 when my son was born. I had medical insurance that covered the entire delivery, hospital, etc. I never received a bill from the hospital, never heard anything about this at all - they were not even on my report last year! So now I've got these 2 charges on here that say they are from 2005. I've disputed them with TU and EQ, but when I called TU and asked the woman what I will have to do if they insist I owe this, she didn't seem to know. Am I going to have to go back and get a letter proving I had insurance? I don't even know what these bills are for! One says it was paid and closed (but I never paid it, so it must have been paid by insurance!). The other is still open. TU says they both were sold to a collection company (but one was paid, so?). This is just crazy. Anyone else dealt with something like this? I'd love to know I can get these removed so I have no negs on my reports!
Were our kids born in the same hospital?! LOL
I have a very similar situation. Had insurance when he was born, everything was fine until I pulled my report last year and see not one or two but FIVE accounts from hospital visits for my son. He was in and out the ER as a baby (preemie fun) and even though I had insurance, they say I owe. I even talked to the insurance company and they said they paid! So when I called the hospital, they said it wasnt them who reported it, but the ER doctors themselves (I guess its something like outsourced in the ER) and the only thing I can think is that they didnt accept my insurance....not sure why they wouldnt, or if they DIDNT why I was never notified
These are the only accounts in poor standing on my credit report. Im tempted to just ask for a pay for deletion and pay it off when I get my taxes back just to be done with it. I have notified the company that "supplied" the ER docs but have yet to hear from them...
So I wait.
Don't you have to be adviesed w/in 5 days of something being put on your credit report. I would sent a VA letter to who ever is listed on your report.
If the dates of service were in 2005 then these collections should be falling off soon based on the 7 year reporting timeframe--possibly even falling off sometime this year. Not sure if you are patient enough to wait for that, though, and I can completely understand that you wouldn't be!
@Anonymous wrote:Don't you have to be adviesed w/in 5 days of something being put on your credit report.
Not legally. The only 5 day requirement per reporting is if an item that had previously been disputed, and plans to reappear as the same OC/CA/whatever, then the CRA must notify you within 5 days if its re-reporting. An OC/CA/whatever can report at anytime without notice otherwise.
Also, for anyone with medical bill issues: if your doctor or hospital participates/is in network with your insurance company on the date the services were performed then they should only be dealing with your insurance company for payment except for copayments, deductibles and coinsurance. So long as you've paid the portion of the bill that you're responsible for then these doctors/hospitals should not be balance billing you or sending any unpaid amounts to collections. While they shouldn't, that doesn't mean they don't, of course. If this is your situation, I would suggest contacting your insurance company and asking one of their "provider relations" reps to step in on your behalf. A good provider relations department will even tell doctors/hospitals that they may not continue contracting with them if they continue these sorts of abusive/illegal billing practices. YMMV but it can't hurt to try.
If your doctor or hospital does not participate or is not in your insurance company's network then it's a whole other ball of wax. You are responsible for the portion of the bills that your insurance company didn't cover.
In any case, I would suggest a call to your insurance company to have a senior customer/member service representative go over your claims with you to understand what was and was not paid, and you should even be able to ask for copies of the EOBs (explanations of benefits) which will give you a paper trail of what was and was not paid to each individual doctor and hospital for each and every procedure performed.
I hope this helps both posters with medical billing issues.
Sorry - my original post should have said the bill was from '07, not '05. The thing that is crazy is that my CR is saying "date assigned" 2/07, "date reported" 1/12. How are they even allowed to do this? And one says paid 3/07, which is totally bizarre because I was going to this office until at least 9/07 (my son was born in August that year). They never said a single word to me about any bills being unpaid. I am positive my insurance paid them. If they weren't paid, obviously they wouldn't have continued seeing me for at least 6 more months!! So disgusted I have to waste my time on this.
I had the same thing happen to me. I pulled my report last year and there it was a collection from a Dr. For 252. I called them and asked what was up being I have very good insurance. They said the insurance refused to pay so I'm on the hook for the bill and any future correspondence should be done with the CA. I called my insurance and they told me a claim was never submitted to them from the Dr. So I asked them how it could be paid, she said being it was from 2009 they are no longer responsible for the bill. After a year of sending letters to the Dr. Office I finally had enough I sent out intent to sue letters to the CA, DR, and the insurance. Needless to say it worked. It was removed 2 months after sending the intent to sue letters. I basically said in the letters I was refused credit for a house and I will be seeking 175,000 for loss and distress and some other good stuff my sister in law who is a law student put in there. My credit score raised 100 points when it was removed last month.
Long story short show them from the getgo you mean business.
TBC
When a debt collector reports to a CRA, that is considered an "initial communication with the consumer" that triggers their requirement under FCRA 809(a) to send dunning notice within 5 days. I agree, there is no requirement for notification when a party reports to a CRA (except for banking institutuions), but there is a debt collection practices requirement for notice of their collection activity.
Two provisions of the FDCPA require notice to you of the parties involved in the debt, thus enabling you to fully identify its origin. They are required in their dunning notice to advise you of the name of the current creditor. If that still does not make the debt recognizable, you can request the name of the original creditor within your DV request.
That is particularly helpful with regard to medical debt, as there are usually many creditors involved in hospital medical care.
Maybe a DV would help you identify the medical provider who originated the asserted debt.
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.