Hello again...I received a reponse from my HIPAA letters that I was NOT expecting and need help in responding.
I had 3 old medical collection accounts that I still owed a balance on. They were sent to a CA a few years ago so I followed the HIPAA process using the template (very bottom of this message) and sent a letter for each individual account with FULL payment for each via certified check CMRRR. I just received one letter today referencing all 3 accounts and they are refusing to delete te TL's....
March 25, 2009
(Newhome4me)
(Current address)
(California)
RE: Accounts (1, 2, & 3)
This is in response to your letters dated March 10, 2009, accounts in collection.
I have notified the agency that we would accept your payments as payment in full with no interest incurred for the last 3-4 years.
(Company Name) has in no way violated any of your rights for non-payment of accounts (1, 2, & 3). All businesses in the United States can report any owed debts for collection activity, as with these 3 dates of service, two from 2004 & one from 2006. All information was accurately reported and now paid in full. These 3 accounts will now show paid on your credit report when posted by the agency, via (Company Name).
Thank you for your payments, they have been sent through for processing.
Respectfully,
(Jerk)
Supervisor
Insurance Follow-up
Customer Service
The hospital is not currently reporting on my credit report, however the CA is (one TL for each of the three accounts).
What do I do next? I thought this was cut and dry that once you paid in full, the TL's would and HAD TO be deleted???
Please help!!
Letter I sent for each (changed account numbers, dates, and amounts for each)
(Newhome4me)
(Current Address)
(California)
(SSN)
HIPAA Compliance Office
(Company Name)
(California)
March 10, 2009
Dear Sir/Madam;
This letter is in reference to account #(3) for services provided to (newhome4me) on May 6, 2006.
In regard to the bill on this account in the amount of $519.45:
Enclosed please find my remittance of $519.45 for payment in full of this account.
Please note, my remittance is payable ONLY to ValleyCare Health Systems and may not be signed over or transferred to any third party collection agency, as this would constitute an additional violation of HIPAA and State Privacy Act rules.
Please be advised that under Federal Statutes, the Fair Credit Reporting Act, (15 U.S.C. § 1681 et seq) and California's Consumer Credit Statutes, you may be held liable for the actions of California Business Bureau.
(a) Duty of furnishers of information to provide accurate information.
(1) Prohibition.
(A) Reporting information with actual knowledge of errors.
A person shall not furnish any information relating to a consumer to any consumer reporting agency if the person knows or consciously avoids knowing that the information is inaccurate.
In addition, the HIPAA and California’s Medical Privacy Statutes are in effect in this situation even though the health care services you provided may have been prior to enactment.
The Privacy Rules prohibits a covered entity from using or disclosing an individual's protected health information ("PHI") unless specifically authorized by the individual or otherwise allowed under the Privacy Rules.
In general, PHI encompasses substantially all "individually identifiable health information" that is transmitted or maintained in any medium. "Individually identifiable health information" includes health information that is created or received by a health care provider, health plan, employer, or health care clearinghouse, and that relates to an individual's physical or mental health or condition, including information related to an individual's care or the PAYMENT for such care.
Your furnishing of my account information to California Business Bureau is not in compliance with HIPAA, or California's Privacy Act, and any subsequent reporting of this account on my credit reports to TransUnion, Equifax, and/or Experian is a clear violation of Public Law 104-191 ("HIPAA") since there can be no permissible business purpose in divulging protected health information to anyone on an account once there is no longer any payment due.
You are required under the FCRA and FACTA to accurately report the status of any account to the credit bureaus, and you are prohibited under the HIPAA and State privacy regulations from doing so on a PAID account, as there is no longer any permitted business purpose.
Therefore I am requesting you promptly rescind all such account information furnished to California Business Bureau and require them to purge their records of all reference to this account, and that you insure that any and all reporting of this account is immediately deleted from my credit reports.
This simple procedure to request the deletion of ALL reference to this account from the records of California Business Bureau and to require them to have this account information deleted in its entirety from my credit reports will resolve this problem completely.
Please respond, in writing within 10 days that you are processing this request.
I am reserving 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.
I hereby waive my rights under HIPAA and any State Privacy Act for the single purpose of your transmission of this request and accompanying documentation in any required report you must make to your E &O insurance carrier.
Sincerely,
(newhome4me)
. I knew it was my debt so I sent the HIPAA letter with payment to the OC (hospital), certified check restricted endorsement, CMRRR, and their response is the letter I posted above.