HELP! HIPAA letter to OC returned by CA-will not accept

[Anonymous]

Nope, they are exact.  This is just strange to me.  We mailed these to the OC on Saturday, on Monday I got the green card back and today a letter from the CA.  Doesn't that just seem super quick for the OC to forward to the CA? 

Would something like this be effective?  Send a letter back to the OC and state that we sent payments in full to satisfy the debt and exercised our rights under HIPAA to have all information delete with the CA.  Can I ask if they are refusing to allow us to execise our rights under HIPAA?  Are they refusing to accept payment for the debt?  Can I put this back in their court?  I would think they would have a duty to deal with me since they are the OC.

[fused]

"Send a letter back to the OC and state that we sent payments in full to satisfy the debt and exercised our rights under HIPAA to have all information delete with the CA.  Can I ask if they are refusing to allow us to execise our rights under HIPAA?"

This is a good question, but I'm not entirely sure I can answer it. It will require me to dig deeper into HIPAA's Privacy Acts. In the meantime, send the HIPAA letter and payment until they cashed it. Its better for you if the OC cashes it, but on the OC/CA's end, it shouldn't matter who cashes it.The OC and CA are really being stupid. I should know I have been working in healthcare forever.

[Anonymous]

Thanks Fused!  I will sent out the letters again tomorrow and see where it goes.

If you happen to find out any other information, please let us know.

Thanks again!

[fused]

We'll do.

[Anonymous]

Just as a side note, even if you do pay the CA, once the debt is listed as paid in full, the CA no longer has a business purpose to have your personal health information, and as such should not be able to verify the account to the CRAs.

Isn't this so fused? 

I believe the advantage to paying the OC is that they tend to be more reasonable about accepting payment in full for the amount on the bill, whereas CAs are both impossible to deal with, and will insist on taking their pound of flesh.

Is it possible the OC wouldn't take the payment because they sold the debt? I had a hospital tell me they would simply forward any check I sent them to the CAs.  That was before I found this forum, and I just prefer to pay an original creditor. However, the HIPAA process made those accounts disappear very quickly anyway.

[CreditGuy03]

Whats the update on this?

I may have this same issue as the OC has told me to pay the CA once before I knew about the Hipaa process

[Anonymous]

Yes I'm curious too, I had to pay the OC via the CA, but with the OCs name as payee, so what if they get their # of flesh, it wasn't their fault it went to collections. They gotta eat. When I pay mine I plan to pay the interest, knowing they will refuse it anyway.  let the doc give them their cut

[fused]

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likewise wrote:

Just as a side note, even if you do pay the CA, once the debt is listed as paid in full, the CA no longer has a business purpose to have your personal health information, and as such should not be able to verify the account to the CRAs. Essentially, Yes! The problem is with verification process itself. Its a joke! As far as I'm concerned, most disputes, rather they be for med collections or non-med collections, are not properly investigated.

Isn't this so fused? 

I believe the advantage to paying the OC is that they tend to be more reasonable about accepting payment in full for the amount on the bill, whereas CAs are both impossible to deal with, and will insist on taking their pound of flesh.

Is it possible the OC wouldn't take the payment because they sold the debt? Yes, but med debt is not always sold. In fact, if its sold, its probably and old debt. Many times hospital employees and employees of doctor's offices say they can't help you, call the CA, we sold the debt to them. What they don't realize is that the debt may very well have been assigned to the CA and not sold to them.

I had a hospital tell me they would simply forward any check I sent them to the CAs.  That was before I found this forum, and I just prefer to pay an original creditor. However, the HIPAA process made those accounts disappear very quickly anyway. Yes, I remember your success, feels great doesn't it.

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[Anonymous]

Here is the second letter we sent: 

Dir Sir/Madam:

On March 21, 2009 I sent a letter to your HIPAA Compliance Office with payment in full for account number XXXXX for services provided to XXXXXX.  This letter outlined my rights under the Federal Statutes, the Fair Credit Reporting Act and Wisconsin’s Consumer Credit Statutes.   On March 26, 2009 I received a response from Alliance Collection Agency, Inc. with a refusal to accept payment on the account because the terms listed were unacceptable.

My original letter to you specifically stated that the cashier’s check was payable only to you and  was not to be signed over to a third party collection agency (Alliance Collection Agency, Inc.).  

I have the right to pay for this account in full to Marshfield Clinic.

I have the right to request that you stop furnishing my protected health information to any third party collection agency (Alliance Collection Agency, Inc.) once this account is paid in full since there is no longer a need for a business relationship between Marshfield Clinic and Alliance Collection Agency, Inc.  on my behalf.

I am enclosing my original letter and cashier’s check payable to Marshfield Clinic only. 

This is my SECOND attempt to pay this debt in its entirety.  I will again reserve the right to take appropriate legal and civil action including reporting to any applicable regulatory authorities any lack of cooperation or compliance with this request.

We received the green RR card back on April 18th, but no response from the OC yet.  I was thinking it was time to see what the next move would be.

[fused]

Yikes!!!!!