Medical collections account negotiation.

[tparvaiz]

Hi,

I have a peding medical collections account that I want to settle. I am not good with verbal negotiation. can I write it to the collections agency or ask a relative to negotiate on my behalf?

if that's the option, how much (%) discount should I ask for?

Thanks

[tparvaiz]

?

[tparvaiz]

To summarize the situation. my account has gone to the collections agency and it is now reporting to the collections agency and impacting my FICO score. I want get the account removed from the credit reporting to secure better mortgage rates.

Here are the details

• I have recently moved to the US and currently on a work visa, and I was new to the US health system
• in August 2017, I took my son to the urgent care for head stitches. they told me that they would charge about $275 and if I go to ER, I will get better services, and they may not even charge me anything
• So I took my son to the ER. After a few months, ER sent me two invoices, one for 1900 sh (doctor charges) and second of 1700 sh (ER charges). I called them, and then they took out doctor's fees as ER charges were inclusive of Doc's. so I was left with only 1700 sh
• I told the situation to ER (re. UC's advise) and asked them to lower the fees to $275 as I was misled into this situation. They offered me a discount of 50%. (totaling around 900) Which I refused at that time as I was expecting $250 charges.
• I asked the ER to try to charge the amount on my Canadian health card to see if I could benefit from that. Which they tried and got declined by Canada
• By that time, I moved to a different address and never got the ER (and the collection agency)
• last year, when I ran my credit, I realized that the account is now with collections
• I called the ER billing department and explained the situation. and offered to pay them 50% in exchange for the delete of account from collections reporting
• ER told me that they can't help in this matter as it is now with the collections and I should deal directly with the collections

my objective is to get the account removed from the credit reporting to improve my FICO score. Please advise

[tparvaiz]

Just to add more details.

I have previously disputed the information directly with the collections agency and with Transunion / Experian.    

• Collections agency provided all details
• Transunion/Experian verified account to be accurate
• It's not showing up on Equifax

Here is what I have on individual reports (not using the creditor names and dates for privacy reasons)

Transunion:

Creditor Name: ABC FINANCIAL SERVICES
Original Creditor: XYZ MEDICAL CENTER
Responsibility: Individual
Condition: Derogatory
Date Opened: 10/5/2018
Date Reported: 05/25/2020
Remarks: Account information disputed by consumer, meets FCRA requirements

Experian:
Creditor Name: ABC FINANCIAL SERVICES
Original Creditor: XYZ MEDICAL CENTER
Account type: Collection Department / Agency / Attorney
updated on: Oct 1, 2018
collection opened: 10/5/2018

Equifax:
...

............ CREDIT KARMA website is suggesting that

• If I pay off the debt in full then my FICO score will be boosted by +25 points,
• settle for less will boost my credit by +21 points
• removed will boost my credit by +23 points

Please advise next steps and would you agree with Credit Karma's suggestion to just pay it off

[Anonymous]

I just paid all my collections off and all I can say that do not believe what you read on Credit Karma. Credit Karma isn't the reason I paid them off, I did it because I do not want to owe anyone anything and am working towards a mortgage. However, just paying them off does not necessarily increase your credit. In fact, if you can't get a PFD, may experts will tell you to not even bother paying it. 

As an example for you, two of my collections have been deleted and they were both reported monthly, so I fought to have them deleted. My Fico 8 for EQ went up 10 points, Transunion 6 points, and EX 3. Maybe those will change and it will increase more since it was deleted on 6/10/20, but that is all I have seen so far. The others that I paid haven't even reported paid as of yet.

Bottom line is write them a PFD letter if you have a problem doing it over the phone. Send it Certified mail and see what happens. I called all of the CA on my report and recorded the conversations on my end. Don't stop trying and harassing them though. I have had other things deleted just because they got tired of being harassed by me. If they can harass us for money, we can harass them back for deletions! Remember the squeaky wheel gets the grease.

[gdale6]

Medical collections are some of the easiest to get removed from your CRs, here are the steps that you should follow to address them:

1. Call the OC and see if insurance can be billed, (or-rebilled), collections ultimately paid by insurance get removed per new rules that came from CRAs settlement with 22 state AGs. If not then
2. see if you qualify for Charity Care, if not then
3. ask that they recall the collection in exchange for full payment
4. Send the reporting CA a PFD offer
5. Google the HIPAA Process and contact its creator for help, this process cannot be discussed in any forum of myFico.

[Anonymous]

Paying off collections offer no score benefit. Only deleting the collection offers a score benefit.

When it comes to collections the only things that matter score wise are: do you have a collection? And when was it reported?

Edit: When matters because you can get points back after the most recent is 2 years old, due to scorecard reassignment. It is possible if it's reporting monthly it could prevent it from aging to that 2-year mark. 

[tparvaiz]

So I called the collections

• they refused to give any discounts (per them the orginal creditor, hospital in this case, do not allow discounts)
• and they don't offer pay for delete.

this account will be 2 years of age in Oct 2020, please advise next steps

[Anonymous]

I’d follow @gdale6 ‘s advice.

[FlaDude]

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@gdale6 wrote:

Medical collections are some of the easiest to get removed from your CRs, here are the steps that you should follow to address them:

1. Call the OC and see if insurance can be billed, (or-rebilled), collections ultimately paid by insurance get removed per new rules that came from CRAs settlement with 22 state AGs. 

---

+1, never accept the first denial from an insurance company. I can't tell you how many times I've had claims denied, called the ins co, they put the claim in for review, and eventually pay. I had one company that seemed to deny almost every claim with "provider is out of network", even though both the provider and the insurer's web site showed them in. Every time I had to call, they'd review, and then pay. I'm sure they find that a certain % of people would just accept the initial denial and let it go.