Medical bills not submitted to insurance co.

[justink873]

Hi Trish, it seems you have helped a lot of people on here.

I just wanted to ask you a few questions. I have a medical bill for $105.00
Thats killing my credit because its being reported as recent on all 3 CRA.
Its from a doctors office thats from sept 07. My (old) insurance company has no record of the doctors office filing a claim for these services. I have already disputed it on experian and it came back verified. I am currently still waiting for the answer back from TU. On Equifax I am waiting for my report to come in the mail because for some reason It wouldnt give it to me online.

I have tried calling the OC billing office and they wont return my calls. I have spoke with CA once and asked them to send me full verification that I owe this and If it turns out I do. I asked them to send me a letter stating that if I pay in full they will remove it completely from my CR's. CA said no we dont do that. I asked why would I pay you then? She just giggled and said I dont know have a nice day.

So now to my questions lol.

Why do you have to remove all old address's and opt out for the hipaa process to work?

How can I get a detailed bill if OC wont call me back so I can compare to my insurance?

On the hipaa letter what option do you think would best fit me?

Thanks for all your help and this has been some great reading.

[justink873]

Update to earlier post:


My HR director for the company I work for just called me and said she tracked it down with the insurance company. She said for some reason the insurance company didnt pay it but applied the amount of the bill to my deductible. She is sending me the info that she has on it.

[Trish]

Originally Posted by justink873

Update to earlier post:


My HR director for the company I work for just called me and said she tracked it down with the insurance company. She said for some reason the insurance company didnt pay it but applied the amount of the bill to my deductible. She is sending me the info that she has on it.

So were you supposed to receive a bill and they(the healthcare provider) dropped the ball?

[justink873]

I got a phone call from the doctors office a couple years ago and was told there was a outstanding balance. I told them the insurance should have paid it. They said it would be resubmitted. Now a few months ago it shows up on my credit reports.
I got some good news tho. I got my response from TU today on my general dispute and they marked it as deleted. They only took 2 days to respond. I disputed 3 collections and 2 out of the 3 was marked as deleted. Whats funny is the one that remains is a paid charge off.

So TU deleted it but Exp didnt. I am still waiting for my report from eq.
Should I get the HIPAA letter ready for Exp?

[Trish]

If this were me, I think I would contact the healthcare provider's billing dept and ask why it was never resubmitted or why they failed to send you a bill.
I know you said they won't return your calls but I would hound them.....calle them daily, email them........if they are close go down there in person. If you start to be a squeaky wheel, someone will listen to you.

If that doesn't work, then yes......HIPAA letter with insert b to the healthcare provider as instructed on whychat's site.

[jjgross]

Originally Posted by Trish

If this were me, I think I would contact the healthcare provider's billing dept and ask why it was never resubmitted or why they failed to send you a bill.
I know you said they won't return your calls but I would hound them.....calle them daily, email them........if they are close go down there in person. If you start to be a squeaky wheel, someone will listen to you.

If that doesn't work, then yes......HIPAA letter with insert b to the healthcare provider as instructed on whychat's site.

You can also contact the medical board in your state who over see's all medical and insurance to see because of the error there causing you to have problems getting housing etc.

[justink873]

Ok I got a statement from the billing office that say services from Sept 07 to June 08 totaling 645.00 is owed now. I called the doctors office directly and told them there billing office wont call me back and that I been leaving several messages. The lady was embarssed and told me that that there billing office was a hired medical billing service. I told her well they never sent me a bill nor notified me about any of these bills. I also asked here how is it your billing office cant collect from to different insurance providers? I told her in 2008 the company I work for switched are insurance to bc/bs.
She pulled my chart and told me we have that on file but it was never submitted because for some reason they only made a copy of the front of the card. She then said can you get that to us again asap so we can have are billing dept try to submit those claims in 08. She then told me since its been over 2 years bc/bs might deny the claims. How is all this my fault? There billing dept. never called me or sent me a bill to notify me anything was wrong. I am pulling my hair out over this whole thing.

[justink873]

I just wanted to add that the 105.00 bill that they sent to collections and put on my credit reports is part of the 645.00 total. Thanks for all the advice and info.

[Trish]

Originally Posted by justink873

Ok I got a statement from the billing office that say services from Sept 07 to June 08 totaling 645.00 is owed now. I called the doctors office directly and told them there billing office wont call me back and that I been leaving several messages. The lady was embarssed and told me that that there billing office was a hired medical billing service. I told her well they never sent me a bill nor notified me about any of these bills. I also asked here how is it your billing office cant collect from to different insurance providers? I told her in 2008 the company I work for switched are insurance to bc/bs.
She pulled my chart and told me we have that on file but it was never submitted because for some reason they only made a copy of the front of the card. She then said can you get that to us again asap so we can have are billing dept try to submit those claims in 08. She then told me since its been over 2 years bc/bs might deny the claims. How is all this my fault? There billing dept. never called me or sent me a bill to notify me anything was wrong. I am pulling my hair out over this whole thing.

It's not your fault......and IMO should be written off or at the very least given a HUGE discount.......plus they should recall the debt from the CA and get them to stop reporting this erroneous bill on your reports.
I would be frustrated too!
Let them try to resubmit it.......see what happens. Did she say how long it would take to get an answer from the insurance co? Maybe you could get them to pull the debt from the CA in the meantime since it's pending.

[justink873]

I was thinking the same Trish. I am going to take the statement to the doctors office and my insurance card to them in the morning. I dont understand why my older insurance supposedly didnt pay any claims for the doctor visits in 07. Then in 08 under my new insurance they failed to make a copy of the back of my card. No one called or sent me anything to tell me the claims wasnt being paid. Its funny the only way I heard anything was because I pulled my credit reports and disputed the 105.00 charge and called there billing office several times. They never called back but all of a sudden I get a statement in the mail showing I owe 645.00 for vists during Sept 07 to June 08. Maybe my dispute of 105.00 pissed them off?