Could anyone answer a medical debt/collection agency question?
I was just contacted by a collection agency requesting payment of $3,400 from back in August of 2007. It was apparently a bill from my 3 day stay at the hospital when my son was born. I had a minor surgery 1 day after his birth and it is a bill from my OBGYN for that surgery. I have documentation for the hospitals part showing that it was paid off in full. I honestly did not know that there would be a separate part for the physician; I assumed that one bill would cover all of the costs.
Several weeks before my sons birth, I supplied the hospital with my insurance info during pre-registration. I knew my insurance would not cover everything from the beginning. Within a few weeks of coming home from the hospital, I received several bills from the hospital and stopped by my OBGYN’s office and paid off everything that was left owed. Or so I thought.
The collection agency is claiming that I never paid for the physicians portion for the surgery. That it was separate. I now understand that almost everything is separate when you have a hospital stay but I have heard nothing since 2007. I assumed that everything was taken care of. The bad thing is the OBGYN is retired and no longer in practice so I can not contact him. I asked the collection agency why I had not been contacted earlier and they claim that they just took over my claim in February of this year!! They also said that they sent an invoice to my old address in June. We just purchased our home in October so it did not make it here. The collection agency also asked why I had not called to change my address with the OBGYN but he is out of practice so I had no reason to call!! I now also am with a different insurance company as we combined to receive a discounted health and homeowners insurance when we bought our home.
The collection agency is being so rude to me and will not offer any help or suggestions. They are saying that I have too many excuses but out of all honesty, everything is true. What can I do?? I do not think I should have to pay this because I was not made aware of this for 2 years! Now I no longer have the money to cover it as I did back then. I have nothing on my credit and all other debt is paid off so I do not want this on my credit. Please help if there is anything that can be done. Thanks!
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Tags: agency, answer, anyone, Collection, Could, debt/collection, hospital, insurance info, medical, minor surgery, obgyn, Question
One Response to “Could anyone answer a medical debt/collection agency question?”
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The first thing you should do when you first receive written communication from that debt collector is to send them a certified letter with return receipt requesting validation of the debt.
This is you requesting proof of the alleged debt. Here is a link to educate yourself with your rights under the Fair Debt Collection Practice Act (FDCPA), below is a link to your rights.
http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/consumer/credit/cre18.shtm
http://credit.about.com/od/debtcollection/qt/debtvalidation.htm
Here is a sample letter:
http://credit.about.com/od/debtcollection/qt/validationltr.htm
It is entirely possible that with the original creditor being out of business that they will not have the proper proof of this debt.
Below is a very informative website for dealing with debt collectors:
http://debtprison.net/wordpress/48/how-to-deal-with-collection-agencies/