Hit a bump in the road

[Anonymous]

I have been successful in having about a dozen items removed from  my credit so far. I checked my credit report this morning and there were SIX new negative marks on my credit. They are all from the same CA. The amounts range from $83 to $11,065. I found out that these are all accounts from Orlando Regional Medical System. I called Orlando Regional since I have never received anything from them. I was told that these were accounts from 2005 that they were "unable to locate me" to send me a bill. There is no way that I totaled $11,065 on a one day hospital visit as an outpatient. My question is, can this collection agency put all of these on my credit report without ever notifying me first? I thought that they had to notify the person in writing that they were trying to collect a debt. Not just slap something on someone's credit report from 3 years ago that they were completely unaware about. I'm planning on fighting the hospital on this on Monday morning but I need to know what obligations the collection agency has legally to inform me of this debt. Thanks.

[Anonymous]

Perfect scenario for the ol' DV.

[Anonymous]

I've never been notified that an OC or CA was going to put anything on my CR.  Their obligation is to report information accurately.  Read the FDCPA and FCRA for more information.

[miay2k4]

I agree with phxwilson.  As much as I dislike ca if they put forth effort to send you letters to whatever address the oc gave them, then it often unfortunate.  I now make sure that oc have an updated or fowarding address for me every time I move. 

Be careful when you close accts (phone, utilities, and rental etc).  I closed a electricy acct then moved only to find out that I apparently owed $55.00 for some last minute closing charge.  It haunted me for several DV letters. 

[haulingthescoreup]

Hi, addicted, welcome to the forums! Sorry for your bad surprise. And I hate to tell you, but it is possible to have an $11K bill for an outpatient procedure. There can be charges for the hospital itself, surgeon or physician, anesthesia, radiology, lab, pathology, and on and on. Hope it's just a screw-up, though.

Your best bet is to approach the hospital and any physician offices (the OC's) first. Often medical collection accounts are still held by the OC's, and they can pull them back from the CA's.

Did you have medical insurance at the time? If so, call them before you call the OC's and find out what claims were filed with them (if they ever were), and what was paid.

There are lots of members here that are really good with medical collections. I'm hoping they'll post in here soon. It would be a good idea to edit your subject line and add "--medical collections!".

So that it would say something like: Hit a bump in the road --medical collections!