Medical Collection Wasn't Properly Billed

[Anonymous]

I had a Emergency Room collection pop-up 2 years ago, never bothered to do anything about it because my life was in a rough spot. Now it's way better than better but anyways. I decided to contact the billing department instead of the actual collection agency. The bill is $534 but the lady said they can give me a discount if I pay in full with a deletion off my report for $412. I told her that's a generous offer and thanked her for it but I wanted to see proof of this bill because I was never sent a bill from this place. About 3 days go by I get this very generic billing statement and noticed some improper billing, they billed me as uninsured instead of going through my medical insurance. At this point I started to notice why I was never sent anything or seen any claims pop-up on my medical insurance. 

Is this something I can fight and have disputed off my credit reports or am I screwed?

[Anonymous]

Good Morning! 

Now that you have the cause of the bill, I would reach out to the Emergency Room, and see if they can re bill it using your insurance. You would have to prove that you were insured at the time, of course. I was in a similar situation not too long ago, and was advised that my original creditor had a 6 month window to re bill, otherwise it was my responsibility. Please let me know if this helps! 

[RobertEG]

The CRAs have recently established a policy, resulting from a settlement agreement reached with the offices of the AG of several states, and currently stated in the CRA "National Consumer Assistance Plan," that they will delete and medical collection that is ultimately shown to have been paid via insurance.

I would pursue getting the medical debt paid via your insurance.

If successful, the collection will then be removed per CRA policy.

[gdale6]

If they cannot rebill insurance these are the steps to go thru

For unpaid medical debt that is reporting on your CR:

1. see if you qualify for Charity Care, if not then
2.  ask that they recall the collection in exchange for full payment
3. Send the reporting CA a PFD offer
4. Google the HIPAA Process and contact its creator for help

[Anonymous]

Glad things are in a better spot for you now, a lot of us on this board understand. Since you were insured at the time, you can call the insurer and ask if there were any claims submitted for that ER incident. Sometimes claims are submitted and denied, and its helpful to know why.

[Anonymous]

Update: I decided to make another call when I found out my insurance was never billed to the Original Collector. Explained the situation, she found an error about it not being billed properly and will proceed to re-bill it; upon doing that their taking away the collection that was placed on my report as well.