Calling all HIPPA experts - Need help

[Anonymous]

Sorry, I'm new at all this. I hate to post again but I need help. I need to get credit score up to 700 within next 60days for home purchase. Current FICO scores are 675, 672, 661. I have one collection on my account (MEDICAL). Date of last activity is Jan 2003. I didn't know anything about this until pulled credit report. Unfortunately I didn't quite understand the importance of your credit. Anyway, on credit report see collection: original creditor is Barrier Island Emergency Care-- which is the name of the company that bills for the emergency room physicians from our hospital. I am in Georgia, but the address for this place is in North Carolina. I have no other info such as date, account number, family member, or anything about this trip to the ER. I followed HIPPA letter 1. All 3 CRA verified, but none supplied info requested. I can not find a phone number for this OC. Trying to do HIPPA letter #2 and send payment for $166, but don't have the account info on it. Is my only choice to contact COLLECTION AGENCY to get this info and risk losing my HIPPA rights. Please help!! I do not now what to do next.

[Anonymous]

I would call  Barrier Island Emergency Care  and ask for info.

[Anonymous]

Thank you for replying. The problem is I can"t get the phone number. I have called 411, searched the internet, even called the hospital and the number they gave me was invalid. I called the hospital back and that was all they had. I cannot get in touch with these people.

[Anonymous]

Please post what contact information you have. So that when looking for it, someone doesn't find it, go AHA, post it, and then find out that they only managed to find what you've found.

Also, the location (i.e., city, so that the BBB is an option to use while finding them)

 What exactly are you hoping to do by contacting them?

 Lastly, Roy Cooper's office (our Attourney General) is incredibly helpful with just about any query sent their way. Even if they can't help you, they can point you in the right direction, or give you some good leads.

Oh, and you might contact the licensing boards of GA and NC to get the contact information. My mother did this recently to find an old family doctor who we all loved, but insurance hadn't been covering. For personal reasons, he'd gone completely off the radar (even so far as to not be listed on the practice letterheads or door plaque). 

[Anonymous]

I may not be understanding ,but maybe you could call the hospital. They should have the billing info for the bill. I did this once for a bill that I never got. I just had them look up everyone in my family that had been there the pulled the info and found the bill that was on my dh report. I explain that I never got a bill. They explain that the billing company they were using was not sending bills. I went on to ask about what to do about the credit report and that I was welling to pay. She then went ahead and emailed the CA for me. I did explain that I wanted a letter from the CA that this would be coming off before I paid. The hospital sent me a new bill that I paid after I got a letter from the CA that a request was made to remove the account from the credit report. I maybe just found a nice person to help me ,but the whole thing was easy. I thought maybe because it was medical.

[Anonymous]

Thanks to all for your help. I guess I should have been a little more specific. My understanding is that when you go to the emergency room at ou local hospital you get all kinds of different bills. A bill from the actual hospital for using their facility, a separate bill for radiology, a bill from anesthesiologist, bill from the emergency room physicians,etc., etc. The doctors that work in our hospital in the ER don't actually work for the hospital. They are contracted out. I guess the hospital pays this other business or whatever for supplying their doctors. Well at the time (in 2003) apparently this group of physicians was called Barrier Island Emergency Care. I did find one old bill receipt from another trip to the hospital with Barrier Island Emerg Care name on it. It had an address in Durham, North Carolins on it. But no phone number or anything else. It was that bottom piece of the bill you get after you tear off the top and send your payment in. Once again it was from another time (2005) and had no other info. Well apparently now our hospital uses ER doctors from a group called Savannah Associates now (recent trip to ER with my son and with my daughter -two different trips and this is what the bills say now.  Someone asked what I was trying to accomplish by getting in touch with them. I need to get in touch with them to try to find out who the bill was for and get an account number so I can mail the $166 payment to them, the ORIGiNAL CREDITOR, so I can follow the HIPPA process, i.e. they no longer have a "business purpose" with the COLLECTION AGENCY, so I can get it removed from my credit report. With out getting any further info I would just be sending a check to this company and they would not know what account I was trying to pay because I don't know this info. I know the COLLECTION AGENCY would have to supply me with this info, but I'm trying not to speak with them so as not to mess up my HIPPA protection. My understanding is to never contact them when doing the HIPPA process for a medical collection.  Does anyone else have any ideas?   

[Anonymous]

New at this also - but have a somewhat similar situation. In reference to a 3 year old medical bill in dispute, I've written to the CA 3 times. Each time requesting DV, provider, etc., and each time, the CA has failed to respond after 30 days. The 3rd (last) correspondence I sent was CMRRR and I've since rec'd the green card. 40+ days has elapsed without a reply.

Additionally, I have a copy of the medical bill(s) from the hospital visit reflected as PIF.

My next step?

Thank you all!