Hi all â?? Love what Iâ??ve been learning on here over the last few months. But Iâ??m not quite sure what to do with an issue. Now, let me say, I have plenty-o-debt that is completely my fault. Iâ??m your run of the mill optimist who always assumed that I would be making more money in the futureâ?¦and never did. So in the future I'll be using the awesome tools in here to make my credit more spiffy. But for once! A charge that a collection agency is trying to collect is not mine (no really!). Itâ??s a medical charge for an office visit for a Dr. I went to many years ago for a car accident injury. I was treated for two years starting in 2000 and it was charged to my auto insurance. I healed! Hooray! And never had to go back to the doctor for that issue again. Imagine my surprise when in 2006, my auto insurance sent me a letter saying that this Dr. was trying to charge them for an office visit by someone in December 2005, 3 years after completing my care, and 1 year after I had MOVED OUT OF STATE! Not only that, but in the explanation of payment (denial) decision, the person the Dr. treated that day has "cervical spondylosis" (basically, arthritis of the neck according to wikipedia), which is something that women over 40 get and I wasnâ??t even 30 yet (not to mention in a different part of the body than my injury). I contacted both the Dr.â??s office and my auto insurance to let them know it wasnâ??t my charge, and though my memory is foggy, I do know that they both said they would work it out, no problem (I sadly did not write down who I spoke with, etc. although if it had happened todayâ?¦) And now I discover itâ??s on my credit report through a collection agency! I wrote a validation letter expecting the CA to contact the OC and then to realize the mistake, but instead I got an itemized list of charges that clearly show my visits in 2000-2002, and then an unpaid visit on 2005. Ugh. It appears that the collection agency is trying to collect on behalf of the OC, and it has not been sold. Soâ?¦.my question (which I realize didnâ??t require all that detail) is: should I contact the OC first, or the CA? Also, should I threaten to report them to the insurance commissioner or something? Because it seems like trying to bill my insurance would be insurance fraudâ?¦
Did you dispute with the OC in writing when the bill first showed up? Having a paperwork trail is important. It is never too late to dispute a charge with the OC in writing, but you may not have as much leverage as you would have if you had done it when the first bogus bill arrived.
While your questions are obviously the questions anyone in your situation would logically be asking, I think they are addressing the wrong issue which I think should be who has done the wrong thing. It certainly wasn't you. Not only do you need to be talking to the OC and the insurance company but now also the debt collector. Did they do wrong in placing that listing on your credit report without having proven that you actually owe the debt? Have you disputed the debt with the credit bureaus? Have you sent your debt validation letter yet? If not, why not? Once they have turned it over to a debt collector they have escalated it to an entirely new level and you need to get busy and respond to that in an appropriate way.
