Getting creditor to instruct the collection agency to remove collection matter from credit reports

[Anonymous]

I have a strange little issue.  I apologize in advance if this post is too long, but I think some people may find this an interesting issue to discuss.

I visited a doctor with the intent to get long-term treatment on a medical issue.  The medical issue involved out-patient treatment for addiction to prescription pain medicine (very sensitive issue).  Long story short, the doctor basically "fired me" as a patient after our first consultation because of an argument/misunderstanding we had.  He then billed me the cost for the initial consultation. 

I didn't pay because of what happened between us and on the legal basis that his "firing me" as a patient under these set of circumstances was not really ethical, and had I known he would get so angry with me and "fire me" under these set of circumstances, I wouldn't have gone to him to accrue charges in the first place (I am claiming that his actions were totally inappropriate, particuarly under his ethical obligations in the manner to treat patients).  He sent it to collections, and I responded to collections with a detailed letter with what happened and my basic reason for not paying.  Collection Agency still reported it as a "disputed" debt on my credit reports.

Without explaining all what happened, bottom line is that the facts of the matter involving the doctor's/creditor's conduct with me during our first consultation is something that would rise to the level of at least reporting the incident to the Arizona medical board.  

Because of the crazy credit crisis going on right now, I decided to take a closer look at my credit report.  This one medical collection (for a mere $200) is doing severe damage to my report.  I spoke to the collection agency today (4 months after they reported the disputed debt to the credit bureaus), and the credit agency refused to take actions to have the matter deleted from my credit reports, even after I offerred to pay the entire debt in full (I assume because they have guidelines and because they could care less if I paid....they already got paid by someone to report the matter).

This is what I have done.  I have written a detailed letter to my doctor, basically agreeing to forget the whole matter (including filing complaints with the medical board) and also agreeing to pay him in full the $200,  In return, I have asked him to contact the collection agency and instruct them to remove the item from my credit reports.

QUESTION:  If he agrees to this "settlement", is it that simple?  Can he simply call the collection agency he has contracted with on my debt and instruct them to remove the incident from my reports, or can the collection agency "veto" that type of action or charge the doctor or myself additional fees and costs to do this?  I think I may have a shot on him helping me out in return for not reporting everything what happened to the medical board (he may cooperate with me just so I will go away completely and not bother him with board complaints), but my strategy is useless if he doesn't have the power to make it all go away.

Any help or insight is appreciated.

PS:  Yes, I realize I should have paid the debt before it was reported, regardless of the dispute (and then I should have addressed the validity of the debt later so I didn't have to deal with a bad credit issue).  Of course, now I understand that because I didn't realize how negatively this collection affected my good credit.  My credit report is stellar, including only 5% debt to credit ratio for revolving credit lines.  The only thing that is bad are three late payments from a Best Buy account (which I paid off 2 years ago after the third late payment) and this stupid $200 collection amount.  Just those two things caused my credit score to be 635, which I was told was still below average.  However, in these crazy times, the difference between 635 and being in the high 600s will have a huge impact on my ability to get good credit with good rates!!!  That is why it is imperative that I try anything I can to get this $200 collection item removed.  My hope is that the doctor/creditor will take all of this into account when making his decision.  I am hoping that my initial letter outlining the unflattering and "alleged improper" things he said and did to me regarding my first consultation along with this recent, very "reasonable" letter where I very respectfully asked him to instruct the collection agency to get the matter off my credit reports in return for my full payment may pursuade him to help me out and settle instead of risking the 100% likelihood that I will at the very minimum bring the matter in front of the Arizona medical board (i.e., if he doesn't agree to my terms, then I have NOTHING to lose by filing a complaint against the doctor with the Arizona medical board).  And, if I am forced with the very unpleasant choice of having to file a complaint with the medical board against the doctor  (or, God helping, any kind of lawsuit, if I even have a decent case with my set of facts), my hope is that the medical board will look favorably on my reasonable attempts to settle this matter amicably and quickly when they consider the rest of the facts in the matter in making a decision on the doctor's conduct involving the whole matter (i.e., what he originally did after our consultation, the fact that he wouldn't even help me get the collection off my credit reports in return for my good faith offer to resolve the matter amicably, etc.).  However, if the doctor's hands are tied and can't do anything about this, then I am screwed.  

Message Edited by redyhws on 11-14-2008 07:12 PM

[Anonymous]

To answer your question, if a OC has not sold the account but only asked the CA to collect, then they can recall the debt from collections and the CA must delete from your report.

However, since this is medical in nature, I would advise you to read the link in my signature titled "medical collections".

[Anonymous]

Thanks for your info.  VERY helpful.  My only concern in my case is that I have had conversations with the collection agency.  They told me back in May that if I didn't get the debt resolved, they would report it in June.  Then I got a copy of my credit report, saw that collection agency did report it in June as a disputed debt, and then called them yesterday and argued about it with them.  They kept reminding me that I knew they would report the debt as a disputed debt to the agencies when I spoke to them last.  However, I did not know they had actually done it until I saw my credit report.

Also, just a little detail.  The doctor NEVER sent me any correspondence except the original debt notice (which I disputed based on our bad experience).  I never received anything from the doctor or the credit reporting agency in response to my dispute letter.  I just spoke to credit agency after I wrote the letter and that is when they basically warned me that they would report it at the end of June if I had not settled the debt or dispute with the doctor.

So, the first "form letter" in your process requires me to send a letter to the collection agency saying I didn't have knowledge about the debt.  I don't think that is true in my case, and I think they have enough proof from my dispute letter and my telephone calls to dispute that, right?  Therefore, I am thinking that the HIPPA process you talk about may not apply in my circumstances because I did have actual knowledge about the possibility that the medical debt would be reported, and I didn't really start to fight it until now when I actually looked at my credit report.  Do you agree with this analysis?