DV or wait out SOL?

[meld9672]

I just received a notice from Automated Accounts for some medical bills that are quite old. My student health insurace was supposed to cover them from a hospital stay in 2005, the claim was never filed correctly, and until I pulled my report, I had no clue the claim didn't file.

When I contacted the student health program, since it was too old, the claim could not be 're-filed' and they didn't even have much in the system for me as the company was no longer doing the insurance for my university at the time.

Anyway, long story short, AA finally sent me a notice on Saturday from their 'attorney at law's' office, although the letter sent states that it has not been reviewed. It also states that this is the notice to give me 30 days to dispute.

But, here's my question. According to my understanding of SOL's they can not sue me after the 3 year point (I'm in WA state. I think medical bills would fall under the 3 year catagory) and the DOFD's are as follows for the different bills:

Acct 1-3 is June of 2005

Acct 4 is April of 2005.

These are all from the same hospital visit so why there are 4 accounts with 2 different DOFD's I have no idea. But, the 4th accout would be outside SOL and the other would be up end of June.

So, is it better for me to DV the letter that was sent within the 30 days or am I better off just riding out the next two months, hoping no suit is filed in that time frame and then working with them as it's outside of SOL.

[llecs]

You can DV anytime you want, inside or outside SOL. BUT, always have the cash on hand to immediately offer a PFD if you ever had to pay on a spur of the moment. Also, DVing or PFDing will also raise the "I'm over here" credit flag. Expect an increased amount of CA activity.

Assuming AA is a CA, what they sent is a dunning letter. You should always respond with a DV to a dunning letter.

[meld9672]

So if I respond with a DV, does that reset the SOL for this? Or does that only occure with a payment? I do not currently have the $3500 needed to pay this off in full which is why I don't know if it'd be better to just wait out the SOL which is less than 60 days away and then try to work out a payment plan with them.

[llecs]

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meld9672 wrote:

So if I respond with a DV, does that reset the SOL for this? Or does that only occure with a payment? I do not currently have the $3500 needed to pay this off in full which is why I don't know if it'd be better to just wait out the SOL which is less than 60 days away and then try to work out a payment plan with them.

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I wouldn't send anything until you had 100% saved. Wait it out. Partial payment only can reset SOL.

It's your call on contacting them now. If they want to sue, they've already engaged in the process of contacting you. If they want to sue, they probably would have by now. IMO, sending a DV now might actually stall them, assuming the worse. I would send the DV at day 20 from the date of their letter. Review everything you have and make 100% for sure SOL and DOFD. If they did try to sue, they can't get a court date inside the next 60 days. Would be near impossible.

[Anonymous]

Some states do not have SOL on hospital bills, so you might want to double check that. I suggest your state's AG's office.