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 Posted: Wed Mar 12, 2008 7:53 pm |
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My daughter is being harassed by a collection agency, more than 3 calls per day from what sounds like India. It is for an ambulance service. The original charges were billed to one insurance she had and they paid their portion. She did not know that they had not billed her second insurance until she started receiving collection calls. She spoke with the debtor, gave them the insurance information, and they billed the second insurance for the FULL AMOUNT again. They received payment from the second insurer and combined with the first one they were overpaid by several hundred dollars. She has called the debtor many times and they confirm that it is paid and say that they are informing the CA but the CA continues to call daily. She just spoke to them again and told them to look at the notes on the record. They say there is nothing there and that she is still liable for the charges. Can't believe a thing they say though.
What are the steps to get this to stop? I'd like to see her report the debtor for insurance fraud for overcharging her insurance too.
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PamelaD
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| Posted: Wed Mar 12, 2008 8:16 pm |
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Instead of giving the CA the information she needs to give it to the insurance agency in order to get the problem resolved.
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| Posted: Wed Mar 12, 2008 8:30 pm |
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She did talk to the insurance agency and all they can do is confirm that the bill was paid. The creditor has also confirmed that the bill was paid in full. The CA continues to call though every time they do she tells them the dates and amounts that were paid and for them to check with the creditor. It goes nowhere and they continue to call every day.
Someone needs to step up, namely the creditor, take responsibility for the error and take care of it and stop the CA calls. She's at her wits end that the credit fully admits that it has been paid. They sent it to collections without ever contacting my daughter that there was any amount due. If they had she would have found out that they didn't bill the secondary insurance and it would have been taken care of.
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PamelaD
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| Posted: Wed Mar 12, 2008 8:49 pm |
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Your daughter should have received an explanation of benifets in the mail from the insurance company stating how much they paid. She needs to find these and make copies of them and send them to the CA by cert. mail with return reciept requested. If she does not have copies of these then she needs to contact the insurance company and request copies of them. Then she needs to contact the second insurance company and let them know of the overpayment made by them and they will go after the company for the amount of the over payment.
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puddlejmpr
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| Posted: Wed Mar 12, 2008 8:55 pm |
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PamelaD,
Has she received anything in writing from the Creditor advising the account was PIF? If so, she has all she needs to make the CA stop calling her. If not, she should ask the ambulance company if they can provide something to her stating this.
If she already has it, or once she gets it, she should just send a copy of it to the CA along with a debt validation and partial cease and desist letter. Make sure she sends it certified mail, return receipt requested.
Even if she does not have, or the ambulance company will not provider her with a PIF letter, I might recommend sending the DV letter anyway. This will force the CA to communicate with the creditor in attempting to validate the debt. Since the creditor is saying the account is PIF, then case closed.
Once the CA receives the letter, they can no longer call her attempting to collect on it until they validate the debt. Since she is providing a copy of the PIF letter, there's not much they can do in the way of validating it. If they do continue to call her after they receive the DV letter, then they are in violation of the FDCPA and your daughter can sue them.
That might need to happen in order for the CA to get the message.
I know this is inconvenient and the creditor should be the one doing this; however, it seems your daughter might need to do this in order to get some peace. It just kills me how a creditor can start a quagmire like this, then not want to take ownership for their error and resolve it. As they should!
Also, since you stated the ambulance company was overpaid by the second insurance company, they need to be advised this so they can get their overpayment back. That is if the ambulance company hasn't already refunded it back to the insurance company.
Who wants to place bets on whether they did this or not? I'm betting they didn't.
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UnemployedRon
Joined: 13 Oct 2007
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| Posted: Wed Mar 12, 2008 11:19 pm |
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Sorry, Puddlejmpr, I think I echoed some of your points in my post. Didn't mean to trample all over you. I think I was composing mine as you published yours.
I didn't even think about the EOB! What a great idea! Might come in handy if the ambulance company will not give her a PIF letter.
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UnemployedRon
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