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Advice with Medical Debt that may be invalid

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Anonymous
Not applicable

Advice with Medical Debt that may be invalid

I'm trying to deal with a medical collections account before it gets reported to Bureaus and nee

 

I recently recieved a notice from a CA saying I have unpaid lab test fees for Quest Diagnostics. The letters say I can pay before they report to the credit agencies, and so far they aren't on my CR. I didn't even know I had any lab work done at Quest Diagnostics or recall getting a bill for them since I use Labcorp for testing because my insurance covers 100% of lab work done at Labcorp.

 

I checked into it some and it turns out back in November/December my doctor's office made a mistake and sent my blood samples to Quest instead of Labcorp, even though my medical files say Labcorp and I confirmed with their phlebotomist to send it to Labcorp. So low and behold when my insurance company got the bill they marked it as Out-of-Network and didn't pay anything on it.

 

I'm in the process of cleaning up my credit reports to buy a new home in the next few months and don't need a couple hundred $$$ in collections on it. If the doctor's office had sent it to the correct lab there wouldn't have even been a bill for me in the first place.

 

Any ideas on how I should handle or dispute this since it was my doctor's office that screwed up, but it's Quest that sent the account to collections? 

4 REPLIES 4
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Advice with Medical Debt that may be invalid

Try to get in touch with the doctor to see if there's anyway to prove the fault is theirs for the mistake. Have them send you any if possible.

Ask your insurance company if you can appeal their denial of the claim citing the mix up as the reason. If they decide to reverse their decision payment should go directly to the provider, in this case Quest, and the account would be considered paid in full forcing the CA to cease collection activities on it.

If they don't agree to reverse their decision, and you have proof the labs should've been sent to LabCorp and not Quest I would talk to your doctor about fixing it since this is their mistake.

If the doctor's office refuses to make things right, try disputing the charge with the CB's when it does show up on your CR and offer any proof you have that you shouldn't be held liable for the account.

 

Message 2 of 5
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Advice with Medical Debt that may be invalid

Thank you for the suggestions I really appreciate it!!

 

I'll give them a try and hopefully I can resolve this without it becoming too big of a hassle.

Message 3 of 5
RobertEG
Legendary Contributor

Re: Advice with Medical Debt that may be invalid

Under the new Natioal Consumer Assistance Plan, the CRAs are delaying posting of any reporting on medical debt until the debt is at least 180 days old.

That may be the reason for delay in posting to your credit report.

 

Regardless, if it is later shown in your credit report, the National Consumer Assistance Plan also includes the removal of any collection on medical debt if it is later paid via insurance.  Thus, once all the smoke has cleared, you can simply send proof of payment via insurance to the CRA, and they will remove without any involvement of the debt collector.

Message 4 of 5
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Advice with Medical Debt that may be invalid

I knew there was new regulations going into effect and they dealt with medical debt, but I didn't know many of the details of the plan. Thank you for sharing and enlightening me.

Message 5 of 5
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