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Helping a friend, new medical collection. How to handle?

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Anonymous
Not applicable

Helping a friend, new medical collection. How to handle?

Is the med collection on your reports?

Yes, 3 new ones as of 01/2009

Is it paid or unpaid?

Unpaid

If unpaid, do you have the money to pay it off in full?

No

Do you remember the date(s) of treatment?

Yes, April 2008

Have you ever disputed the med collection? If yes, when and how?

Never disputed.

Have you ever requested debt validation from the CA? If yes, what did they send you and when did you receive it?

No debt validation requested.

 

 

 

Ok, now that the formalities are done... Here's specifics.  My friend went to the hospital last year for chest pains.  No insurance.  He received a bill for $6,000+ for various tests and the like.  He didn't/doesn't have the money to pay it in full.  Not sure why he didn't just start making payments but, hey, I guess that's why he's in this position now.  There are 3 different collections, 1 for $5,800, 1 for $585, and 1 for $16!!!   Yep, $16.  I shake my head when I see this.  He does not have the money to PFD.  The questions he has are:

 

1)  Can he contact the OC and arrange payments through them and have the new collections recalled?

 

2)  If the OC no longer holds the debt, can he make PFD's on the two smaller ones?

 

3)  What options does he have to pay the $5,800 one with the least impact on his credit report?

 

Thanks,

 

Fred

Message 1 of 11
10 REPLIES 10
fused
Moderator Emeritus

Re: Helping a friend, new medical collection. How to handle?

Thanks for giving us some background info, it helps a lot. I have some questions before I answer yours. Are all three of these med collections with the same OC? If yes, I assume all three collections are being reported by the same CA?

Message 2 of 11
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Helping a friend, new medical collection. How to handle?

No, they are 3 different CA's.  Cadillac Accounts Receivables, UCB Collections, and Russell Collection Agency.  The last is a local CA that holds the $16 debt.
Message 3 of 11
fused
Moderator Emeritus

Re: Helping a friend, new medical collection. How to handle?

If your friend can pay the two smaller collections in full, I recommend he use the HIPAA letter process. As for the large collection, there's not much he can do if he doesn't have the funds to pay it off in full. I assume this big collection is for hospital debt, not physician debt.

 

If this is the case, there is usually no SOL on unpaid hospital debt. Why? Because its considered to be Federal Gov't debt because hospitals receive funding from the Feds to offset huge losses. Since your friend owes a lot of money on this one collection and can't pay it in full, how much can he afford to pay on a monthly basis?

Message 4 of 11
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Helping a friend, new medical collection. How to handle?

Yes, the large debt is the hospital debt.  He doesn't have much available to pay each month.  I'd be surprised if he had more than $100 extra.  He is getting a sizeable tax return that he wants to use to pay stuff off so I'll advise him to follow the HIPAA letter process.

 

 

Message 5 of 11
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Helping a friend, new medical collection. How to handle?

One other thing.... should he try and contact the OC to see if they will take payment?  If so, that removes the CA from the process right?
Message 6 of 11
fused
Moderator Emeritus

Re: Helping a friend, new medical collection. How to handle?

Just remember that he shouldn't start the HIPAA letter process unless he has ALL of the money. Its important to know that we all have protections under HIPAA when it comes to med collections, but the same is NOT true with public records like judgments. Any public record resulting from unpaid med debt is exempted from HIPAA. So, its very important to avoid a med judgment because they are a real PITA to get deleted, rather they're paid or not.
Message 7 of 11
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Helping a friend, new medical collection. How to handle?

Ok, he has one other medical collection from 2005.  This is also with Russell.  The plan I'll give him will be as follows:

 

1) Make sure he has enough to cover 3 collections, $585, $16, and $120.  

 

2)  Send hand written pre-HIPAA letter to CRA's and wait for response.

 

3)  Follow up with different scenario's depending on the response he gets.

 

 

Now what should he do about the large one?  Should he try and contact the OC and make payment arrangements?

Message 8 of 11
fused
Moderator Emeritus

Re: Helping a friend, new medical collection. How to handle?

Make sure he opts out and updates his address, if its reporting incorrectly, before he sends out the pre-HIPAA letters on the collections he can pay in full. He should only contact the OC with the 5+K collection if he has at least 2-3K to make as a first payment, and at least 400-500 monthly thereafter. Just remember one thing, the OC is not obligated to work with your friend on this. Also, they are not obligated to ask the CA to pull the account out of collections or ask (instruct) them to delete it.
Message 9 of 11
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Helping a friend, new medical collection. How to handle?

Ok, thanks.  It's going to be a loooooooong time before he has 2-3000 to pay and 500 a month.  He only makes about 15k a year.  That being said, what should he do about this account in the mean time?  It's the one that doesn't have a SOL so what's he gonna do, pay $100 a month to a collection agency for 5 years?  Doesn't each monthly payment effectively re-age the account?  If that's the case, he's looking at 12 years of having a collection account on his report.  Hell, he might as well file BK and get rid of it all and use the next 10 years to work on building his credit again.

 

 

Message 10 of 11
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