PLEASE Help re: collections issues

[Takunda1]

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iwannahouse wrote:
What a lesson about medical bills!  I did call the hospital, but the billing office is closed today and tomorrow, but will be open on Monday.  We will call first thing on Monday, and send our dv on Monday as well.  So- CA's don't report until after the 'you have 30 days blah, blah, blah?' UGH!  Thanks for all your help!  I probably would have gone ahead and paid the collection agency instead, if I had not gotten your advice here, and that would have been worse!  I'll still be nervous about it for the next few months, until I know my cr is okay.  UGH!  Thanks a bunch!

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They should not report until 30 days after they mail you your first noticce. When you send a DV they cannot report until they get validation of the debt from the OC. Paying it to the hospital was a good way to go. Keep your DV very short and to the point. YOu may want to add that your bill was PIF to the OC on [Date] Most CA will not respond to you if they cannot validate your debt. Just make sure to check True credit or whatevedr monitoring service you use at least twice a month for the next 3 months to make sure they don't report anything on you.

[haulingthescoreup]

iwannahouse, I would even think about taking a couple of hours off from work and going to the hospital business office in person Monday morning. They might be open at 7:30; certainly by 8:00. This might well be worth getting something in writing from a human being, face to face.

Good work dodging the collection bullet!

[LuvsRetro]

Make sure that you include to the CA that this was paid to the hospital with the date of payment and possibly a copy of the page showing payment processed. 

I did the same thing, CA had the account, I paid the hospital and DV'd the CA, but should have included that this was paid and details. 

The CA reported to my credit bureaus.  They ignored my letter.  It took me 7 months to get it taken off.

And keep all documentation attached to the bill for future reference.

Haulings post about going to the hospital would be very helpful.

Message Edited by teamfico on 12-02-2007 05:37 AM

[Anonymous]

Okay, so in the dv letter that I send tomorrow I will saying two things.  1. I am writing to validate this debt (I'll use the language from examples on this board). 2. According to my records and the records from the hospital (hopefully attached letter from hospital), this bill was paid in full directly to the hospital on 12/0107.  Then, I check my credit report for the next 3 months to make sure it does not show up.  Anything else?  Thanks!

[Anonymous]

We talked with the hospital today and they are not showing the bill as pif, but that the payment is processing.  The woman said that once it is showing pif, they can provide documentation to us (that we will include in our DV letter) and they will cancel the collection.  She also said she will make a note to look for the payment to post, and will contact me once it posts (I will keep checking in with her as well).  I sure hope this works!  I don't want to send the dv letter until I have the doc from the hospital.  How detailed should I be in the DV letter?  I've read the letters here, but I'm not sure how specific I should be.