Help With A Large Medical Collection

[Anonymous]

Dear Fused - I wanted to find out if you could possibly help me with a medical bill situation that arose from a knee surgery I had 7 years ago - I hurt my right knee playing basketball in Los Angeles and after dragging it around for 3 months due to no insurance, I finally found a program called MSI that agreed to cover all my medical costs in order to get the surgery I needed. Well, 2 months after the operation, I started receiving notices that I owed $25,602 to the hospital where I had it done. Obviously I didn't have that kind of dough and I don't feel that I'm responsible for the debt anyway. It's now been turned over to a collection agency (9-03) and is affecting my ability to do anything credit-wise, including of course, buying a home. Do you have any advice or input as to how I should proceed? I looked at your past posts and saw that you have a system for similar situations - I just don't know if it applies to my particualr scenario... I look forward to your correspondence and thank you for your time and assistance in advance. 

Sincerely,

A

Message Edited by fused on 03-20-2009 08:29 AM

[fused]

The HIPAA process will only work if you have the ability to pay this debt off in full. Has the collection agency been calling or writing you letters? Do you remember the date of the surgery? I assume this is hospital debt?

[Anonymous]

Fused - thank you so much for getting back to me. Yes, the collection agency has been hounding me and the date of the surgery was mid-2002 I believe. Also, yes, this is a hospital debt from Fountain Valley Medical Center in Fountain Valley CA. Will this be on my record forever or is there something I can do? Thank you again - A

[fused]

The collection can report for up to seven years from the date of treatment. So, you're looking at mid-2009. This hospital you were treated at, is it a (100%) private hospital? Some types of hospital debt have no SOL (statute of limitations) while other types do have a SOL.

If you have outstanding debt with a hospital that receives Federal funding there is no SOL, you can be sued as long as you still owe money. What this means is you could be sued today or 50 years from now as long as the debt is outstanding. On the flip side, if you have outstanding debt with a hospital that is private and does not receive any Federal funding, the SOL is 3-4 years, depending on which state you live in.

[Anonymous]

Fused - thank you. Is there a way to find out if my hospital is private or federally funded?

[fused]

You will have to inquire with the hospital. Remember, if the hospital receives even $1 in Federal funding, there will likely be no SOL on this debt. Its a lot of money, so I would be concerned if there is no SOL on your med debt.

[Anonymous]

I just spoke to 5 different people at the hospital and they all said the hospital is privately owned by a company called "Tenet". Tenet is a company that owns a lot of different hospitals and according to one of the employees I just spoke to "has a lot of lawsuits pending against them." Is there any way they could all be misinformed? Thank you again, you've already been extremely helpful.