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I am trying to figure out how best to deal with this collection account on my credit report.
Its a $65 collection from a hospital for an insurance copay they never billed me for that’s been placed with Aargon Agency.
Its a valid debt and I just want to pay it off and hopefully get it removed from my credit report with a PFD arrangement.
The problem is that they have never contacted me about this debt. They actually have had 4 medical debts placed with them and all have passed the reporting period except this one (set to fall in October 2021) but they have never sent me a letter or attempted to reach me by phone about any of them.
I tried calling them and you can either put in your account number or leave a message to have them call you back.
Since I don’t want to make myself liable for the debts that the SOL is up on, I don’t know what to do right now. Obviously I can’t get the full account number from my credit reports, the last four digits are X’d out, and I don’t really want to leave a message and invite them to call me.
Anyone have experience with this collector or otherwise have any advice?
You are still "liable" for the debt, even if SOL has expired.
Expiration of SOL only ends their ability to obtain a civil judgment. It does not extinquish the debt.
Your concern is thus apparently that a mere call will reset the SOL, and thus their ability to file for civil judgment.
I would give them a call if you wish to negotiate.
Just dont admit to the debt, and state only that you wish to resolve the issue without prior admission of the legitimacy of the debt, and you wont reset the SOL.
I never should have been liable for most of the medical stuff in the first place but I didn’t know it was on my report when I got my SSDI and they won’t pay for it so many years after the fact. I am only willing to pay for what I should be responsible for and that’s this $65 which was a copay. The rest of the medical bills would have been taken care of by Medicare back in 2014 since they were incurred while waiting for my disability hearing from 2011 to 2014.
So I should just call and leave my number on the voicemail? It seems so stupid that you can’t reach anyone without the account number that they don’t send you. I’ll leave the digits that show on my report and hope that’s enough. Thanks Robert
Go to the hospital business office and just pay the balance. No hospital is going to turn away a payment. I've worked ER for 35 yrs part time. They take what they can get. Once paid. Ask them to recall the CA debt.
This hospital is a nightmare to deal with. From the few threads I found here, Aargon is easy to work with so I’ll try the PFD route with them and if unsuccessful I’ll then deal with the hospital directly about it. It’s a mismanaged mess. I was actually a patient of their medical group and had all of my services there at the time of hospital admission and they could have easily gotten my phone number and mailing address but they never bothered and just sent it to collections. They did this with two prior bills as well (the ones that Social Security would have paid) even though I had Colorado’s Indigent Care Program at that time as well due to my circumstances and since they didn’t call to get approval at the time of service like they are supposed to, CICP won’t pay for those bills either.
It is admittedly a huge mess and one that I really didn’t want to deal with but I want to have a completely clean set of credit reports when my BK drops next year so I’m dealing with it now.
Well apparently they’re not in a hurry to get paid. Would have thought I would have gotten a call by now since I called Sunday and it’s Tuesday. I’m going to give them til Friday and call again but it may be more hassle than it’s worth if they won’t return calls.
So after not hearing anything from the messsge I left, it looks like there is a dunning letter coming today (gotta love USPS Informed Delivery).
I am hoping that my willingness to PIF will make them willing to PFD. Assuming they’ll offer me a settlement amount, I’ll call them and offer a couple bucks more than the settlement and see if I can score a PFD and work up to the full balance if I have to but only if they PFD. If they won’t PFD, I won’t pay and it will fall in 2021.
If the reporting CA wont PFD then use the HIPAA Process, you will need to contact its creator for help as it cannot be discussed on these boards.
@gdale6 wrote:If the reporting CA wont PFD then use the HIPAA Process, you will need to contact its creator for help as it cannot be discussed on these boards.
I have high hopes they’ll PFD. Since they haven’t bothered me about this until I called them when they have updated the account on my report every month like clockwork since 2015, they obviously don’t seem too interested in going after me if it took me leaving a message with my partial account number to get a dunning letter, especially since I left my phone number and they could have immediately started trying to harass me into payment.
I looked up the HIPAA process and it’s a lot of work for a med collection less than $100 which has no scoring penalty on most FICO scores.
I should have left it alone and let it fall. The letter they sent me isn’t regarding the collection I called about but rather one that’s already off my credit reports. Now I don’t have a choice but to work with them. And what’s worse is this other one that had fallen off is from the same visit as the first so it can get slapped right back on there and actually damage my credit since it’s more than $100.