Medical Bills & Collection

Did the hospital sell the acct. to the Collection agency, or did they hire them to collect the debt? Big difference....IMO.

based upon your nick, i'm guessing state of ohio. In ohio, sol is 7 yrs..they will sue on medical no doubt..i have a judgement against me for $500.oo per medical..usually first at collection agency then goes to attorney for suit..keep close eye on it-or you might regret it..good luck

I don't know if the sold it. Since I responded to the very first letter from the collection agency, I'm thinking they just hired them to collect. I talked to the hospital the day the letter from the debt collection agency arrived... The billing dept told me to "pay something" to get the account current/active. I sent a small payment of $25 to the hospital just to show that this was an error on our part.

What should I do in either case?

nalyt...I'd call the hospital and ask if they sold it or if they've hired the collection agency to collect for them. If you sent your payment to the hospital, and they accepted it, ask them why is the collection agency telling you different things than what the hospital is.

It's your right to know where your account is being held.
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was in the same boat...I'm a Buckeye, for sure. ;) There are rules for medical collections that most collection agencies, in Ohio at least, don't follow. For instance & from my understanding, if a medical bill gets assigned to a collector, they must close your acct., once they sign it off.

Maybe I was unclear on my original post... sorry...

Both the credit company and the hospital said that this account will be reported on until it is paid to zero. However, the differing information is what is going to be reported. The credit company indicated that if reported it would be damaging information. Whereas the hospital indicated that there would be an initial "bad" report followed by many "good" marks... indicating that my wife is paying.

Thanks so much for your replies!

Have they posted it in your credit report?

As long as they aren't sueing you & you continue making payments, you should be okay then.

Wishes of good luck & health to you's.

They called my wife the other night... I said that I thought you already posted it to her credit report. Basically they haven't posted anything yet, since you have 60 days after it goes to collections to get it all cleared up. So I still don't know what will happen.

Hi,

Hey, If they not reported in your credit report you need to contact them about this problem. They must need to post it in the credit report. This is not your fault. This company is responsible for that case.

Thanks.

I don't follow.

As far as I know, nothing has been reported yet. Nothing about this account at all. Up until a few days ago we never had any issues with collection agencies. We went 90+ days w/o paying on a single account and started this whole mess.

Hi nalty,

Register now here.

Thanks for reply.
But they need to report to payer this is not your responsibility.
In my opinion there is not your any fault.

Thanks

Basically the collection agency called the other night and said "I see you paid only $25 on your account, we thought you were going to pay in full." My wife said there must have been a misunderstanding. I jumped in and told them that the hospital said "pay anything to get your account active again". Then the lady from the collection agency gave me what sounded like motherly advice (not an aggressive collection attempt) and said that this will be reported on every month until it is paid off. She proceeded to tell me how this would hurt my wife's credit. I said that the hospital said it was ok to pay something every month, and I would get back to her.

So at this point, I don't think anyone has done anything wrong. Other than my wife by missing payments! hahaha Does that clarify?

Talk to the hospital. The simple fact is if it isn't reported yet, then if you are paying as agreed then it shouldn't be reported at all. Ask the hospital to pull it out of collections as a sign of good faith from them. It is not a credit account. If it gets reported it will be reported as a collections account, and even if you are paying it, it still will reflect badly.

Ask the hospital if as long as you keep making payments will they please keep it out of collections and off your reports. I have made deals like this numerous times and they have never given me any problem about it.

Whatever you do, don't listen to what the collection agency has to say. All they care about is getting the money as fast as possible. Most will say anything to make that happen.

Thanks goldenbast.... finally the information that I have been looking for.

Collections account VS. a Credit account. Makes perfect sense. I will have my wife talk to the billling dept and see if we can get this squared away.

Maybe I'm wrong here.... But why wouldn't the hospital take it out of collections once now that we started paying them again? I mean if it's in collections wouldn't someone be motivated to make a deal with agency to pay less that the full amount?

What benefit is it to the hospital to pull this account out of collections? What do I say to make the magic happen?

The hospital told my wife that they can't do anything about this account that was sent to collections. The hospital seems less than cooperative to help... They probably have plenty off sob stories.

I'm assuming that it is time to attempt a negotiation with the credit management company. Any tips?

no tips but i am dealing with a hospital for my brother now and i know how stubborn they can be. they say they can help and will help but than keep lagging. plus i am disputing the bill as it is charging for services/exams that never happened.
so i am sorry for no advice, but i really can relate.

Ok there is one more thing you can do. Since the account is just being serviced by the collection agency and not owned by them, force them to send it back to the hospital. Send the collection agency a full cease & desist letter informing them you want nothing whatsoever to do with them.

The collection agency will have no choice but to send it back to the hospital. THEN you make sure the hospital won't sent it to another collection agency since you are currently making payments. Let the hospital know that it is within their best interest to keep it out of collections and off your credit reports since you are paying because what is the incentive for you to pay it if it is already a collection account on your credit report.

Also tell the hospital that since you are making timely payments you DO NOT want it in collections as that gives the collection agency private medical information about you and that since you are currently making payments directly to them, the collection agency has no business reason to have your private info and the hospital would be in violation of HIPPA laws by giving the CA this information..trust me..the medical industry gets real interested when HIPPA is brought up because they could get into loads and loads of trouble if they violate HIPPA law.

golden - as always, great advice!