txjohn wrote:
HIPAA does not apply to unpaid medical debts, only to paid medical debts.
If you DV the CA, you cannot do HIPAA, so be careful if you hope to use it.
HIPAA is the process of using medical privacy as a means of leverage to get third party debt collectors to remove a CA related to a PAID medical collection. The legal reasoning is that medical information is protected. And that if the debt is paid, there is no legitimate reason to be releasing or reporting any medical information to a third party, including CA's or CRA's.
However, if you DV the CA you are giving them authority to obtain the relevent medical information related to the debt, and therefore they have a legal reason to have obtained and to report the upaid portion.
Therefore: If the debt is unpaid, you want to attempt to pay and deal directly with the OC medical provider. Once it is paid, then you have HIPAA options.
If you cannot pay the debt to OC, then you usually want to attempt a PFD to the CA. You might be able to settle for a fration of the original amount. But it is important to NOT:
1. Do not admit liability.
2. Do not authorize them to obtain or verify any medical information
3. Offer as a settlement of the alleged debt as a means to buy peac, a payment for settlement in full, in exchange for deletion to CRA's.
While I agree its best to work with the OC whenever possible, the
HIPAA letter process is applicable to both paid and unpaid med
collections. Of course, you have a lot more protection under HIPAA with
a paid collection, but the HIPAA letter process should and can be used
with unpaid med collections too, provided you can PIF the debt, if you
have to. Its important to note that no one has protection under HIPAA
with medical debt that ends up as a public record. HIPAA exempted
public records (judgments). The HIPAA letter process always begins with
a specialized dispute letter (the pre-HIPAA dispute letter) to the CRA.
Then depending on how the CRA repsonds to this letter and whether or
not the reporting CA sends validation, there is more letter writing to
do if the CA is not deleted. If the CRA verifies the collection and the CA does not validate, then a "medical DV letter" (not your standard DV letter) should be sent
to the CA. There are two types of med DV letters: one for paid
collections, and one for unpaid collections. If the CRA verifies the
collection and the CA validates, then a "special letter to the OC"
using a proper insert and payment if applicable is the next step. Just
because its a medical debt and you're afforded protection under HIPAA,
the reporting CA must still prove they are reporting a valid debt, just
like any other type of non-med collection.
There is some good news with paid collections though, there is
pending house legislation to make it unlawful for a paid medical
collection to be on our reports. There is no pending legislation for
unpaid medical collections, however.
Starting Score: EQ 401, TU430
