Contacted by collection agency but don't owe anything

Hi.

My parents have been getting automated phone calls for about six months now. They never answer them but the caller leaves a message stating to call them because they have an important business message waiting for my father. I looked up the phone number and it's from a debt collector that typically deals with medical collections. We decided we shouldn't answer the phone or respond to the the messages because there is no way my parents owe anything to anybody. So today they called and my father answered. Ugh! They told him the amount due, the date from when it was originally due (two years ago), and that it's from the local hospital. I don't know if they gave any further information because my father can't remember what else they said. He did mention something about maybe they got the name or address wrong, I don't know what that's all about.

My mother takes care of all the finances. She is very meticulous about keeping records and paying everything off in full before it's due. She always pays off everything in full, including her credit cards. She has no debt at all. We are worried that these debt collectors are going to ruin my mother and father's credit.

So my mother isn't sure of what to do. We were thinking of going to the hospital tomorrow (Wednesday) and finding out if they say she owes anything. I was going to go as a witness and also to tape record the conversation. Should we go to the hospital and see what they say or just deal directly with the collection agency?

Also, if it turns out she doesn't owe anything, what should her next step be?

If she does owe something, what should her next step be?

I noticed that there is a forum here that provides sample letters for dealing with collection agencies. If my mother should send one of these please let me know which one.

We would really appreciate help on this matter.

Thanks,
meje1

 

I have an update.

My mother looked through her files and it does appear that my father owes the hospital. Apparently, the insurance didn't cover the entire visit and there was a letter from the health insurance company stating my father MAY owe the hospital (this was in 2008). However, my parents never received any bills or anything from the hospital. My mother says that in the past she has received statements from the insurance company stating that she may owe the hospital for a particular vistit/procedure but the hospital never sends any bills. Now she's wondering if she owes the hospital for visits in the past. They never send her bills so she doesn't know.

We have not yet gone to the hospital to talk with them since something more important came up. I'm guessing that the next step would be going to the hospital to confirm that my parents do indeed owe them. Would this be the correct thing to do? What should we do after that? I assume the money should be paid to the hospital and not the collection agency. But I've heard horror stories of people paying what they owe and the collection agency still comes after them anyway.

Does anyone have any advice? In the future I think anytime my parents suspect they owe something to the hospital they'll just go to there to find out for certain.

 

What does that mean - "sold the debt or assigned it"? If the collection agency is calling my parents, that sounds like the hospital has sold the debt or assigned it.

So, if we do this, we should get the letter prior to paying, correct? Do you think the hospital would be willing to call the collection agency while we're there and give us a letter?

This is very confusing to someone who has never dealt with debt. If my parents have to pay the money to the collection agency, what exactly do they need to get in writing and how do they go about doing that?

I appreciate the help, it's just that this entire situation is confusing (and stupid). The hospital screwed up and now my parents have to deal with this collection agency bullcrap.

 

How would my parents check their credit report? I think they tried to do that a few years ago. They had me go to some website they heard about on the news, but it required their SSN and they didn't feel comfortable submitting it, so they didn't bother going any further. Considering that computers can have viruses and malware on them that can go completely undetected by anti-virus and security software, I would be very hesitant about entering my SSN on a legitimate website.