CA's suck!!!

[Anonymous]

I called the OC on a unpaid bill that i do owe. explained the situation to them and offered to pay in full to either them or the CA(OC said had to pay them) in return I wanted the mark removed from my CR's. Collection gal at OC said didnt know if they could do this, but if I paid it would be marked paid. Told her I knew this but that I wanted it removed in return for payment today. (local). She said she would call the CA and ck with them on this as she didint know if they could, I told her that it was completely legal and safe to do and that I had many other med. collections do this recently and told her that since she is the OC that she would have to instruct the CA to do this upon payment. So she called me back and said that Kim at HR Accounts said that it was illegal and that they could only mark it paid. I said not true as I have had many others proceed this way. She said that she had to do what the CA said since they knew the law and that they could only remove it if there was an error.

So now I'm stuck, I can pay in full today since it's only $79.00 but I dont want to with out them deleting it. So Beautiful responders what should I do now, I have already PFD this CA on another acct and they sent the same We cant do that response. Please help asap so I can get these off here.

Thanks in advance!!!

[Anonymous]

Oh bull. It's done all the time. In fact, I did EXACTLY that. Paid the OC, and OC in turn instructed the CA to delete. I left the CA completely out of the picture. I was able to do this, because the OC still owned the account. If your account was sold to CA, then the OC is completely out of the picture. They can't do anything.

The clerk you spoke to doesn't know what she's doing. I'd call back and demand(in very nice terms) to speak to a supervisor, or better yet the department head.

[Anonymous]

Have you tried calling the OC back and talking to a manager or supervisor. That is what I did with a hospital bill and they pulled it back from the CA and I paid in full that day. Good luck.

Debbie

[Anonymous]

Ok I just called and talked to the Office Mgr and she said that she would call and talk to someone higher up the food chain at the CA and see if PFD is something they can do. I told her the same info as I had told the gal this am that it was legal and she said if I paid it they would go to the collection agency and ask them if they could remove it or what else they could do. I said to her that i didnt want to pay it till I knew they would delete it b/c after I pay it they have no incentive or reason to delete. She was wondering why no one else had ever asked to have this done and I told her maybe no one else knew that they could and that I have had 5 other collections PDF in the last 2 wks without a problem. she asked if any of them had been with this same CA and I said no none of them were. She said she would call and then call me back. So I am crossing my fingers right now that this will be done. the SOL on this is July 2010 and I dont want to wait that long to get it off there it is one of the more recent baddies on my report and will help my score if I can get it off there.

Help and additional advice on this would be deeply appreciated!!!!

Thanks

[Anonymous]

Good luck carrie! We're rooting for you.

Please keep us posted an let us know your progress.

[Anonymous]

I certainly will and what do you propose I do if she comes back saying that they cant do this. Do you have a suggestion on how I should proceed next on this?

thanks

[Anonymous]

Tell her you would like to talk to her supervisor as you are not getting the info you need from her. But play on there sympothy. Make it sound as if you are trying to do the right thing by paying this but they should do the right thing by removing it. Tell them at the time you were on hard times and could not afford to pay (give a sad story) and now that you are able to pay you would like them to help you out on this.

Oops almost forgot remind them that the CA works for them not the other way around. Let them know that the CA has to follow by what they decide to do. 

Message Edited by nikkoslilmouse on 10-31-2007 12:47 PM

[Anonymous]

used the following on my med bill to the OC

The Privacy Rules prohibits a covered entity from using or disclosing an individual's protected health information ("PHI") unless specifically authorized by the individual or otherwise allowed under the Privacy Rules.  In general, PHI encompasses substantially all "individually identifiable health information" that is transmitted or maintained in any medium. "Individually identifiable health information" includes health information that is created or received by a health care provider, health plan, employer, or health care clearinghouse, and that relates to an individual's physical or mental health or condition, including information related to an individual's care or the PAYMENT for such care.  Your furnishing of my account information to COLLECTION AGENCY is not in compliance with HIPAA or STATE MEDICAL PRIVACY CODE. Subsequent reporting of this account on my credit reports to any credit reporting bureau is a clear violation of Public Law 104-191 ("HIPAA") since there can be no permissible business purpose in divulging protected health information to anyone on an account once there is no longer any payment due.

You are required under the FCRA to accurately report the status of any account to the credit bureaus, and you are prohibited under the HIPAA and STATE MEDICAL PRIVACY CODE  privacy regulations from doing so on a PAID account, as there is no longer any permitted business purpose. Therefore I am requesting you promptly rescind all such account information furnished to COLLECTION AGENCY and require them to purge their records of all reference to this account, and that you insure that any and all reporting of this account is immediately deleted from my credit reports upon your receipt of payment.  This simple procedure to request the deletion of ALL reference to this account from the records of COLLECTION AGENCY and to require them to have this account information deleted in its entirety from my credit reports will resolve this problem completely.

[Anonymous]

Use the HIPPA angle on this.

"yes. it was sent in error" should have been your response.
This is the way an OC needs to report it to the CA so it will be deleted. CA's are instructed -NOT LAW to delete only if it was an error.

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@Anonymous wrote:

I called the OC on a unpaid bill that i do owe. explained the situation to them and offered to pay in full to either them or the CA(OC said had to pay them) in return I wanted the mark removed from my CR's. Collection gal at OC said didnt know if they could do this, but if I paid it would be marked paid. Told her I knew this but that I wanted it removed in return for payment today. (local). She said she would call the CA and ck with them on this as she didint know if they could, I told her that it was completely legal and safe to do and that I had many other med. collections do this recently and told her that since she is the OC that she would have to instruct the CA to do this upon payment. So she called me back and said that Kim at HR Accounts said that it was illegal and that they could only mark it paid. I said not true as I have had many others proceed this way. She said that she had to do what the CA said since they knew the law and that they could only remove it if there was an error.

So now I'm stuck, I can pay in full today since it's only $79.00 but I dont want to with out them deleting it. So Beautiful responders what should I do now, I have already PFD this CA on another acct and they sent the same We cant do that response. Please help asap so I can get these off here.

Thanks in advance!!!

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