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I have read through the Hippa process and have done the online opt out and will mail the other opt out letters tomorrow. I had a few questions about some things I am unclear on though. I appreciate the assistance, and it is wonderful to find such an informative and helpful site and people as this.
Here goes
First of all, the 2nd step of the hippa process regarding updating your personal information with the CRAs. I saw mention of needing to ask them to remove any addresses listed other than the current address, is this correct? Also my information is correct on all but TransUnion, they seem to have me all mixed up. First of all they still show my maiden name, and the only instruction on their site on updating the name is that you must update your name with your creditors. All of my current creditors have my married name, and most of the companies on their reports do as well, I only see 2 that were aquired before I was married. How can I get them to update my name?
They also have my address wrong but I am sending the form with proof of my current address tomorrow...somehow they ended up with my current address listed as a primary and my address from over 4 yrs ago listed as the current.
On a side note, why does transunion show none of my 4 credit cards or my mortgage? I have orchard bank, hsbc, and capital one credit cards, as well as a wells fargo financial one I am secondary on and none of those nor my almost 1 yr old mortgage with countrywide are reported on TU...so most of my positive history is not shown on trans union, including 2 paid off car loans...I dont know if this is a result of them having the wrong last name?
My next question is regarding the type of medical debt. I have seen several posts asking the person if their debt was for a physician/dr office or for hospital or emergency services. Some of mine is for the emergency room. Can Hippa not be used for these debts? One is also described as a Medical Center, but it is refering to the hospital too I believe.
Third, regarding whether the debts have been disputed. Before finding this site I sent a dispute on Experian regarding 2 of my medical collections. One was for a drs office in central florida, but the report says that it is in collection as of sept 2006, and date opened says may 2006, no date on that file is for before may 2006. The problem with that is that I have not lived in central florida since late 2005, and the last time I would have been to that dr office was early 2005, if not late 2004. Also I had medical insurance at the time and aside from my office visit copays that I paid each visit, there should have been no charges. There is a note on this collection that reads "Creditor cannot locate individual from July 05, 2006 to Sept 19, 2006" But I had all my mail forwarded and never received any communication from the dr office, even on my cell phone number which I kept and I know they had. My dispute to experian was regarding the accuracy of that account. That debt appears on Equifax and experian, but I only sent a dispute to experian. The other item I disputed, also with experian, was for a medical imaging dr office, and the reason for that dispute was that it was a workers comp injury that I had an xray for and the dr office was provided with the workers comp insurance, and I was never notified by the dr or the CA that they thought anything was due from me or was being reported. I just sent those 2 disputes the other day, so i'm sure I need to wait to hear back from them, but considering the circumstances surrounding them, if they do come back as verified what recourse should I follow?
I have one medical debt that shows as paid (I didn't pay it, but it should have been covered by insurance to begin with so I assume insurance paid it late or somthing), it only shows up on equifax, I presume I should follow the paid debt hippa letter instructions for that one? The rest are not paid, so my question is if they are past the SOL can we procede with hippa procedure, as they no longer can bring a judgement on the amount owed? And also is the SOL based on the current state of residence, or where I lived when the debt was accrued and put on my report? In TX where I live now its 4 yrs for any but in Fl depending on the debt it could be 3-7 i believe.
I am very sorry for the long email...I have so many questions and don't want to do anything else wrong so I can be rid of these. I do have a few newer med debts for my son as he is uninsured, but they are not out of SOL so I will have to PIF I'm sure...most are under $200 each, but one is $600, I don't know how I'll be able to pay that one. If you want to PIF is it best to go directly to the OC or to try and make payment arrangements with the CA?
One last question. On Equifax I am showing 3 charges from the same OC and under the same CA now. They appear to all have the same account number, the first part before the X's is at least, and 2 are for the exact same amount of $65 and one is for $138. The creditor classification says Check Guarantee?? I have no idea what that means or what they are for, it says they are from 'FAMILY HEALTH CENTER' but the address for them is in Chatanooga TN where I have never been (i assume a corporate address?) The only thing I can think is that they are for my sons birth, because they show date of first delinquency as 10/2005, which was when my son was born, 10/29. The problem with that is that I was on medicaid and was not responsible for any of the charges, and never got a bill or notice regarding any charges (granted he was born while we were evacuated from a hurricane in fl, but they had my medicaid info so they had my address etc to contact me, and that certainly isnt a bill for the whole amount of his birth so they must have billed some of it to medicaid) I actually just found a 4th on there for $120, everything else (name address account number) is the same as the other 3.
OK I can't think of anything else at the moment, Again I am sorry for the very long post...I hope I included any necessary information to answer my questions...I was lucky enough to get a decent FHA loan on a house last year just before the credit bubble burst, with my husband and I having scores in the high 500-low 600 range (he has alot of medical and nothing positive, so i will be working on his too. Most of his are very old though, from a workers comp injury that they never paid like they were supposed to) But we want to be able to refinance in a year or so when the credit market hopefully improves, to get lower than our 6.5% if we can. I have a good amount of positive accounts for my age (24 yrs, and 12 positive accts over the last 4 years, including the above mentioned 5 credit cards, mortgage, 3 paid off cars and a current car loan, and some catalog credit accts which actually arent showing up, thanks alot fingerhut and swiss colony...only reason i got them was for credit history) but theres these medical bills that are dragging my score down, and a couple of old collections from college that will drop off this year and next yr. , so if I can clear some of these by PIF or following hippa on the out of SOL ones, I hope I can give my score a big boost...
Thanks again for all the great information and help on this site
Please refrain from sharing personal information about yourself in the forums. Thank you!
--fused, myfico moderator
Welcome to the forums!
Please follow the guidelines in the link below. List each med collection and answer the questions if you have the info. Discussing med collections and non-med stuff at the same time gets confusing.
Please Read This Before Posting About Medical Collections
Everything I mentioned was medical, it's all I have on my reports except 2 lates I am sending goodwill letters for (from years ago) and 2 charge offs that expire this year, so I'm not too concered with those. Here's a list of all my medical...theres about $2000 total but some of it I've never seen before, and I can only assume they are from insurance not being billed properly, because the time frames fall during times I was fully covered by medicaid. Here goes
NORTH AMERICAN CREDIT SERV
Date Reported: 05/2006
Date Assigned: 04/2006
Creditor Classification: Check Guarantee
Creditor Name: FAMILY HEALTH CENTER
Accounts Number:
Account Owner: Individual Account.
Original Amount Owned: $120
Date of 1 st Delinquency: 11/2005
Balance Date: 05/2006
Balance Owned: $120
Last Payment Date : N/A
Status Date: 05/2006
Status: D - Unpaid
Comments: N/A
NORTH AMERICAN CREDIT SERV
Date Reported: 05/2006
Date Assigned: 03/2006
Creditor Classification: Check Guarantee
Creditor Name: FAMILY HEALTH CENTER
Accounts Number:
Account Owner: Individual Account.
Original Amount Owned: $65
Date of 1 st Delinquency: 10/2005
Balance Date: 05/2006
Balance Owned: $65
Last Payment Date : N/A
Status Date: 05/2006
Status: D - Unpaid
Comments: N/A
NORTH AMERICAN CREDIT SERV
Date Reported: 05/2006
Date Assigned: 03/2006
Creditor Classification: Check Guarantee
Creditor Name: FAMILY HEALTH CENTER
Accounts Number:
Account Owner: Individual Account.
Original Amount Owned: $65
Date of 1 st Delinquency: 10/2005
Balance Date: 05/2006
Balance Owned: $65
Last Payment Date : N/A
Status Date: 05/2006
Status: D - Unpaid C
omments: N/A
NORTH AMERICAN CREDIT SERV
Date Reported: 05/2006
Date Assigned: 03/2006
Creditor Classification: Check Guarantee
Creditor Name: FAMILY HEALTH CENTER
Accounts Number:
Account Owner: Individual Account.
Original Amount Owned: $138
Date of 1 st Delinquency: 10/2005
Balance Date: 05/2006
Balance Owned: $138
Last Payment Date : N/A
Status Date: 05/2006
Status: D - Unpaid
Comments: N/A
The above 4 accounts are ones that I do not recognize. The OC name is vague, but based on the date of 1st delinquency being 10/2005 and 11/2005 I assume they are from my sons birth, as thats the only time I would have had medical care then. However I had full medicaid at the time so I shouldn't have had any charges for any of that. Also, I do not know what the Check guarantee for Creditor classification is. Based on Texas SOL, they would be out as of oct/nov this year, but I lived in Fl at the time they were accrued, but since I don't know what kind of charges they are, I don't know if they are under the 4 or 5 yr SOL for FL.
FINANCIAL CONTROL SVCS
Balance: $598
Date Updated: 03/2009
Original Balance: $598
Original Creditor: MED1 02 HILL COUNTRY ER PHYSICIANS
Past Due: >$598<
Pay Status: >Collection Account<
Account Type: Open Account
Responsibility: Individual Account
Loan Type: Collection Agency Attorney
Remark: >Placed for collection<
Date placed for collection: [ 12/2008]
Estimated date that this item will be removed: 03/2015
Above is charges for a ER visit for my son. It is pretty recent so SOL is too far off, and it would be pretty difficult to PIF due to the amount...I can make payments on it if necessary until its paid, and then begin the hippa process if it isn't removed..
FINANCIAL CONTROL SVC
HILL COUNTRY ER PHYSICIANS
Status:
Collection account. $195 past due as of Nov 2007.
Also a ways from SOL, can PIF. As with most of these, the charges are for my son who is uninsured
Theres another identical to the above except the account number, i'm not sure why there are 2 from the same Nov 2007 past due date, we didn't go to the ER twice that month
MERCHANTS&PROFESSIONAL C
Original Creditor:
SAN MARCOS MED IMAG
Status:
Collection account. $55 past due as of Dec 2008.
Account History:
Collection as of Feb 2008 to Dec 2008
Another one that I don't know what is, I havn't gotten any Xrays since a fall at work that was covered by workers comp, and it was in either 2006 or 2007. <b>I disputed this one with Experian 3 days ago, still waiting for results. </b>
QUALITY COLLECTIONS
Original Creditor:
LAKE MARY OB/GYN
Status:
Creditor cannot locate individual/Collection account. $193 past due as of Sep 2006.
Account History:
Collection as of Sep 2006, Jul 2006
Creditor cannot locate individual from July 05, 2006 to Sept 19, 2006
The above is the one I mentioned having no dates other than those in 2006, at which point I lived in texas, not in florida where this office was. my last visit to this office would have been mid 2005 at the latest, and again I was on medicaid for my pregnancy so no charges should have been due.
<b> I just disputed this one with experian as well </b>
NORTH AMER CRDT SVCS
Balance: $200
Date Updated: 01/2009
Original Balance: $200
Original Creditor: MED1 02 CENTRAL TEXAS MEDICAL CENTER
Past Due: >$200<
Pay Status: >Collection Account<
Account Type: Open Account
Responsibility: Individual Account
Loan Type: Collection Agency Attorney
Remark: >Placed for collection<
Date placed for collection: [ 09/2008]
Estimated date that this item will be removed: 03/2015
Another recent one I will work on paying...thats the last one...I know i need to pay the recent ones and if they arent removed I will follow the paid hippa process for them. The ones I really had questions about were the ones that I dont know the source of, and were during times I was covered by full medicaid during my pregnancy and delivery. That and the one with dates that are way off of when I last had appts at that drs office. If they are not out of SOL just yet, how can I go about pursuing why they were ever even billed without risking them going for a judgement?
My other primary question was about how to update my name with trans union since they show my maiden name, and out of curiosity why so many of my positive accounts are not showing up only on transunion, i was wondering if that could be a result of them having the wrong name.
Also, I have never requested a validation from the CA on any of the above debts. I noted beneath the 2 that I have filed disputes on, they are marked as under investigation currently since I just did that 3 days ago and don't have responses yet
Sorry about the signature last time, i wasn't thinking...force of habit!
Thanks again
ChaniiLove
If you have any med collections that you disputed and they are now marked as verified, you'll have to wait six months to start the HIPAA letter process. If you try to dispute again right now, you'll be labeled as frivilous disputer, then you'll really be stuck.
If you can afford to pay a collection, contnue on with the HIPAA letter process. If not, do use HIPAA, otherwise you'll land yourself in some hot water.
As for your maiden name on your TU report, call them ask what they require from you to change it. Also, some states do not allow Medicaid members to be billed for services, or to have their accounts sent off to third-party collectors. Check your state's (FL and TX) Medical laws and Privacy Acts.
The medicaid ones were all while I was in Fl on Fl medicaid, by the time I moved to TX I didnt have medicaid anymore, because I didn't qualify, hence all the bills for my son since he is now uninsured. But I would just need to check the medicaid laws in fl since that was what I had at the time, correct? And if the fl medicaid laws say I cant be billed or sent to collection agencies, what would my next step be? I will check on that now and let you know what I find. Thanks for the help. I'll keep you posted on what I get back on the 2 that I disputed. I only disputed them with experian, should I wait until experian responds to do anything with those same records on equifax, or should I sent them a validation request now too? Thanks again
ChaniiLove
I'm having some trouble finding anything I can understand clearly specifying whether in fl I could be billed for medical care while on medicaid, but i have their number and if I don't find anything by monday I will call them and ask, since I will need them to provide me documentation that I was covered during that time anyway. I'll post updates as soon as I have one. Thanks
ChaniiLove