Here is what I have done in the last couple of years till today
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 . At the time of the incident (Oct 2017), I didn't had US health insurance so I gave them my Canadian Health Insurance that eventually got rejected by the insurance.
2. see if you qualify for Charity Care, if not then. in 2017, I should have qualified for Charity care as my salary was less than 4 x average state pay. Can I still approach them and request to qualify me under charity care?
3. ask that they recall the collection in exchange for full payment. I did in 2019 and they told me that the account is too old and it has already gone to the collections for which the only thing they can do is collect the full amount
4. Send the reporting CA a PFD offer.
- I have sent a PFD letter to the agency last week offering full payment for PFD
- I also called them yesterday to settle the account and they told us that for this original creditor do not give any discount and the collection company's policy is not to offer PFD. we requested to speak to a higher authority and left a VM, didn't hear back as yet (after 24 hours).
- Something interesting also came up during the conersation with the collections agency. To give you a little more background. I was initially sent two invoices from the hospital, one for the medical emergency ($1700) and second for the doctor's charges ($1000). When I spoke to the hospital, they took out doctor's fees as medical emergency covers it, and I thought the issue was resolved. Also, the collections agency didn't report it to the credit reporting agency. But during the call with the collections agency, they mentioned that doctor charges are also pending. So we asked them to follow up with the hospital for the correction. Is there any opportunity to use this situation in my favor?
5. Google the HIPAA Process and contact its creator for help, this process cannot be discussed in any forum of myFico. can you please share some links if process can't be discussed.
PLUS, I have previously disputed this collections with the credit reporting agency and was unsuccessful in getting it removed. as well, I have requested the creditor to validate the account, which they did.
Apart from the questions above, this collection account will be 2 years old in Oct 2020, do you see any value in paying it off (without PFD) to increase my FICO score allowing me to qualify for better mortgage and car loans?
Thanks again for your assistance
