Hi again, My husband has some old medical accounts that I never got any information about. The bills MIGHT have gone to his old office (he was self-employed - no health insurance at that time) but I never saw them. One is reported as originally $925 with $625 still owing, so I don't know if he paid that. I knew the bills existed, and that they were huge for what he described. (He fainted on a plane, and the airline sent him by ambulance to an Atlanta emergency room, where they pronounced him fine, so he could get back on a flight.) Later, the hospital he went to was charged with all sorts of fraud for padding their bills. The accounts are kind of old (3/2004) and I can't even tell what of the bill is legitimate. The bills are in collections, of course. First, I don't know how much of this is real, so I'm reluctant to pay them. Second, HIPAA letters only work with paid bills, right? Do I settle and then HIPAA? Do I ask them to validate the debt first? If they are paid, they should fall off next spring. Don't want to reset any clocks either, though I'm not sure what action legitimately does that. Any advice from you incredibly efficient people? Thanks so much.
