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Ugh. I am having a DAY. I got a notification that my score had changed. Logged into MyFico and discovered a collection was added to TU and I took a 28 point hit. Ouch. So far, it's only appearing there but I am so angry.
I called the company and they told me it's from 2016, from Immediate Clinic, for my daughter. Problems with this: She's always been insured, I've never received a bill from anyone, and this is the first I've heard of this. They had an address I no longer live at, but I moved 6 months after this visit, and used a forwarding address, and had no problem getting anyone else's mail. The collection agency told me that their records show that it wasn't sent to any insurance whatsoever. My daughter AND HER TWIN went in on the same day for flu swabs and Tamiflu and only one of them wasn't submitted to insurance? Argh. The collection agency lady helpfully told me it's too late to send it to insurance now, so if I pay they'll delete it. Great. Let's pay $450 for a bill that would've been covered 100% by insurance.
But wait, there's more. My ex-husband is legally responsible for all uninsured medical expenses, so it should've been billed to him anyway. I'm literally not liable for this bill at all. But it's hanging out on my credit report anyway.
I don't close until the end of November so I have some time, but things like this make me so angry. I sent the court order stating that he's liable for her expenses to them, since the woman on the phone said that may be enough to get it removed. I've had success in the past with individual medical offices changing him to the responsible party after being provided with that documentation, but no one has ever sent anything to collection under these circumstances so we'll see what happens I guess.
It's just so frustrating to do everything right and STILL get crap like this popping up out of nowhere.
@Anonymous wrote:Ugh. I am having a DAY. I got a notification that my score had changed. Logged into MyFico and discovered a collection was added to TU and I took a 28 point hit. Ouch. So far, it's only appearing there but I am so angry.
I called the company and they told me it's from 2016, from Immediate Clinic, for my daughter. Problems with this: She's always been insured, I've never received a bill from anyone, and this is the first I've heard of this. They had an address I no longer live at, but I moved 6 months after this visit, and used a forwarding address, and had no problem getting anyone else's mail. The collection agency told me that their records show that it wasn't sent to any insurance whatsoever. My daughter AND HER TWIN went in on the same day for flu swabs and Tamiflu and only one of them wasn't submitted to insurance? Argh. The collection agency lady helpfully told me it's too late to send it to insurance now, so if I pay they'll delete it. Great. Let's pay $450 for a bill that would've been covered 100% by insurance.
But wait, there's more. My ex-husband is legally responsible for all uninsured medical expenses, so it should've been billed to him anyway. I'm literally not liable for this bill at all. But it's hanging out on my credit report anyway.
I don't close until the end of November so I have some time, but things like this make me so angry. I sent the court order stating that he's liable for her expenses to them, since the woman on the phone said that may be enough to get it removed. I've had success in the past with individual medical offices changing him to the responsible party after being provided with that documentation, but no one has ever sent anything to collection under these circumstances so we'll see what happens I guess.
It's just so frustrating to do everything right and STILL get crap like this popping up out of nowhere.
IF the bolded paragraph is true, then you should notify the creditor and request them to validate this charge.
OR, you could also take the report with their claim on it directly to EFX, EXP and TU with proof that you're not the responsible party and if done correctly, this charge should be dropped rather quickly--within 45 days according to the law.
Others may chime in with a better solution but i think you got this one covered...
Good news. I sent an email and the documentation to both the medical office and the collection agency yesterday. This morning, the original creditor called me and said it's been pulled out of collection and the debt is waived. They agreed that it was clearly a billing error since my kids have been seen there and insurance has correctly been billed every other time, and since it's too late now to bill insurance I guess they're just writing this one off. They said the collection agency can provide me with a letter stating I no longer owe this debt, and that it's been removed from my credit report since it can take a few days to actually get removed. So for anyone else in this situation, don't get as stressed as I did. It was resolved almost immediately.
I spent years rebuilding so this kind of stuff really strikes a nerve. I never, ever let bills go unpaid so billing issues like these that come hit my credit without notice are incredibly upsetting. At least it won't cause a problem with my mortgage.