Medical Collections

[danelleo]

Last week my husband got two letters from CA's stating he owes $483.30 and $144.90. I know my husband was seen by this hospital but we never recieved a bill afterwards stating we owed this money. Where do we go from here? We have until the 27th of this month to dispute this debt.

[Trish]

Are either of the debts being reported on his CRs? If so, read here.

If not, contact the healthcare provider and speak to the billing dept. Ask them if they have any outstanding bills on your dh. If they try to refer you to the CA, tell them you refuse to deal with collection agencies.

At least this way you can find out if you actually owe the bill. It is possible that they didn't submit to insurance correctly. A lot of times that's what medical collections end up being.

[danelleo]

I will have to pull his credit reports to find out. Is there a way to pay for credit reports through PayPal?

[oneilldn]

Go to Credit Check Total and enroll on their free trial, You'll be able to see all 3 credit reports for free. You'll also be able to pull all 3 everyday after you free trial expire. Be aware you can also see all 3 scores but have in mind that these will be FAKO score, but at least you can see what is in all CRA reports in one.
Also, After the 7 days free trial you membrship will be $19.95 a month, but here is a litle trick, before your trial expire give them a call and tell them you want to cancel, they will offer you the service for $9.95 a month per six months...

It a great service since after your free trial goes out, you can pull all 3 of your CR's everyday.

Good luck.

[Trish]

I always recommend getting your first set of reports directly from the CRAs....just because they will be the most detailed.....and you will also get a CR # to dispute with.
I'm not sure about getting CRs through paypal.......but yes, if you want to see a tri merge report for free so you can see your CRs right away, then credit check total is a pretty good deal.

[danelleo]

How do I go about getting the reports directly from the CRA's?

[danelleo]

Side note, the report I pulled for him didn't show either of those collections on his account?

[Trish]

You can get your reports directly from the CRA's by ordering them online through their websites.......or you can call them if you want them mailed to you.

Here is their contact info.

You should go ahead and just call the healthcare provider and see if they can tell you what the outstanding bills are for. Find out if you actually owe anything.

[danelleo]

Ok I hope I make sense in all of this. Here is what happened. My husband called the OC and the lady said that insurance paid some of it but not all, which I can understand. When I got on the phone with her I asked why we were never made aware that we owed. She stated that they sent out the first letter stating what we owed on Feb. 9th, 2007. She did not have the address for which they sent that letter to. She said they sent out letters every month until November of 2007 when they sold the account to a collection agency. So this company has had the account since 11-07 and we are JUST hearing about it now.

What do I do now. The lady gave me an address that they have on file now and it was my dh parents address of which he hasn't lived at in 6 years.

Where do I go from here?

[Trish]

If you only pulled one report.....you need to check the others and make sure that this is not reporting first. If it is reporting, then the first step is the medical dispute letter from the HIPAA process (link in post #2).

If it is not reporting then you need to just pay the healthcare provider the amount that is owed. Still going through the HIPAA process but skipping a step.

Let me know if it is reporting on any of your CRs and then read the link from post #2. Then I can explain it in a little more detail depending on what you need to do next.