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Hello,
I have an old medical bill now in collections with Grant & Weber. I've read several reviews about this collection co. and they are all bad. Exactly what I experianced when I contacted them. Unbelievable that a business can operate like these guys do and I'm amazed they get anyone to pay them. My question is: Will all or most medical collections reported on credit reports be removed or not counted in your FICO scores? I recently read several news articals saying that this was about to happen. Is this true? After talking with the rude SOB at Grant & Weber I don't want to give them a dime of my money. The sicking thing is I had medical insurance at the time of the ER visit and it should have been paid in full but the hospital reported that I had no insurance. So because of the hospitals error I have a $7,000.00 bill in collections and I never recieved a bill from either the collections co. or the hospital.
@Anonymous wrote:Hello,
I have an old medical bill now in collections with Grant & Weber. I've read several reviews about this collection co. and they are all bad. Exactly what I experianced when I contacted them. Unbelievable that a business can operate like these guys do and I'm amazed they get anyone to pay them. My question is: Will all or most medical collections reported on credit reports be removed or not counted in your FICO scores? (No, only PAID collections won't be counted but unpaid MEDICAL collections will drop your score less in FICO9, the newest version.) I recently read several news articals saying that this was about to happen. Is this true? After talking with the rude SOB at Grant & Weber I don't want to give them a dime of my money. The sicking thing is I had medical insurance at the time of the ER visit and it should have been paid in full but the hospital reported that I had no insurance. (You need to contact the hospital and resolve this, especially if the hospital messed up on the billing.) So because of the hospitals error I have a $7,000.00 bill in collections and I never recieved a bill from either the collections co. or the hospital.
I've already tried to contact the hospital and they sent me right to the billing department and I got some rude young lady that told me that it wasn't possible for them to have an error like that and I had to prove that I did show them my insurance card. Now how in the hell am I going to prove that I did indeed show them my insurance card? It's five years old and going on six soon. How do you fight these kinds of people? I can prove I had insurance at ther time but this sob didn't care about that. I even have proof of being at an urgent care facillity on the same day as the ER visit and medicare paid the urgent care but no bill from the ER hospital. **bleep**? I'm so frustrated!!
OK, so if you are on Medicare, and were on Medicare the day you went to a hospital, you do not need to prove anything. You should contact Medicare, explain the situation and they will take it from there.
A participating provider may not bill the beneficiary for services unless there is an ABN in place.
In your case, unless you signed a piece of paper that states something like " Medicare will not pay because blah blah blah" they cannot bill you. If they simply did not update their records to reflect you having Medicare, hospital will have to write it off.
I've written off many accounts because intake staff did not do their job properly.
Medicare/CMS representative will listen to you. They are always on the prowl for fraudulent billing.
With CMS, the responsibility is always on the provider unless ABN was signed.
@Anonymous wrote:
I've contacted Medicare and they confirmed I was covered at the time but they told me I had to get either The hospital or the creditor to write to them showing just cause as to why they are billing them five years later and submit the bill again. We'll I called them both and got the same response. They both argued with me saying that NO GOVERNMENT AGENCY WILL PAY A FIVE YEAR OLD BILL even after I explained to them That I spoke with Medicare personally and that is not the case and they would pay it if they did what I explained to them. What a joke, it's as if they don't want to get paid. Uuuhhhggg!!
Possible Routes:
Have you asked for their supervisor in the billing office since they are unable to assist you? If they say they don't have one, politely hang up, call back, and ask for the hospitals medical director. Explain to the Medical director ( or their associate) that you're having trouble getting the proper assistance in the billing office and since they don't have a supervisor, you're calling them instead. You should get a response from them or their office.
Be firm, be polite (no matter how much of a jerk they are!) and explain you've already contacted your insurance who has confirmed the coverage. (Before calling them again, I'd get a phone number & contact person the hospital billing person can contact personally to confirm coverage with Medicare and get the bill paid.)
Have you asked Medicare to contact the hospital for you?
Are you able to go there in person? ( I've no idea if this hospital is still close to you). Showing up in person with paperwork in hand changes a lot of attitude.
@Anonymous wrote:
First let me say thanks to all of you who answered my post. I am going to try everything you've all suggested that I haven't already tried. The last reply seems to offer me one things I haven't tried as of yet and I'm a couple thousand miles away from that particular hospital so showing up in person isn't an option but I can get back on the phone and try try try again. I'm a Disabled Veteran with nothing but time on my hands so I can spend the next year trying everything to get this off my FICO. Thanks again, I'll keep y'all posted.
First of all, thank you for your service! If none of the above work, I highly recommend you contact your congress person about it, since it concerns Medicare and you are a disabled veteran. Congress peeps love to help on something like this because it makes them look good, and they usually can do something on their end if it involves government funds.