Lots of issues. One at a time. :)
Date: Wed, 08/24/2011 - 16:08
Anyways, on to her issue. She had 1 medical account that went past due. The billing department had her wrong address so she never got any bills. Upon finding out about the collections accounts, she promptly paid it off and the balance is now $0.
Here is where the issue lies. For the 1 medical account she had multiple things done at the same time. The collections department separated the entire bill in to multiple collections (equifax and experian are showing 6 different collections for 1 account and trans is showing 7) for each procedure that she had done. Now my question is 1) is this legal to separate an account balance in to multiple sub-account balances? and 2) How can she go about getting all of these excessive collections off of her credit report?
It does not seem fair at all that 1 account can be turned in to multiple collections to completely annihilate someones credit score. This is the only negative mark on her credit report and it is absolutely killing her score having this many collections being reported. The collections agency that reported this is called Account Recovery Services located in Wauwatosa, WI.
Any help with this matter would be greatly appreciated.
One medical account cannot be separated into 6 different account
One medical account cannot be separated into 6 different accounts. That is wrong and illegal. She could negotiate with the collection agencies and also dispute the items with the credit bureaus in order to remove these multiple sub accounts from her credit report.
Contact Account Recovery Services and request them to update the
Contact Account Recovery Services and request them to update the account status as "Paid in Full". Make a written request to them to remove the negative info from the credit report.
So in the letter to the credit agencys what should we say? Shoul
So in the letter to the credit agencys what should we say? Should we also include a copy of the credit report with the sections highlighted?
All if the accounts show that they are paid already I dont know if account recovery services would actually remove them. Is there any legal action we could take if they refuse to remove the multiple items for the same account?
Well, that's not necessarily true. For instance, for one proc
Well, that's not necessarily true.
For instance, for one procedure, she could have a hospital facility bill, lab and/or pathology charges, anethesiologist charges, surgical charges, and visiting primary care physician charges.
Some facilities (hospitals) will put all of these charges together (as a convenience to the patient). When payment was received, they would pay all of the providers. Once it went to the collections, those providers might each have individual billing becoming a collection account.
Many physicians are not employees of the hospital facility. They simply have privileges to use that facility for treating their patients. Hence the multiple charges.
That might not be what happened in your case, but I would take a closer look at the collection accounts before making demands.