So I sent a ITS letter to a CA last month and never heard anything back (yet they were still reporting, sent ITS for violating FDCRA by not responding to DV and still reporting). I was going to dispute with the CRAs but before I got a chance to do so we got a letter from the CA... The CA says that they DID respond to the DV but it got sent back to them (which seems odd, they sent it to our permanent address which forwards out here to Hawaii). The letter came as a forwarded letter even though they wrote do not forward on it. They provided a DETAILED copy of the bill from the hospital with specific services and everything. This is my husband's account and apparently the mother of his children took his daughter to the hospital and never told him. She also very kindly listed him as the "responsible party" with her address and her phone number. Duh no wonder my husband never got a bill! He never even lived at that address. He called the hospital and they said that whoever signs the child in is responsible for the bill, that they can't list someone else. My husband wasn't even in the state at the time. They said they would investigate and pull the file. Going to follow up with them tomorrow. In the meantime, we get ANOTHER letter from the same CA with a bill for his son. Apparently she not only took his daughter to the hospital on 2/24 she also took his son as well. The second bill we got was for his son and yet again was a detailed 3 page long bill. (Which I assume violates HIPAA). However, now I'm kind of stunned and not sure what to do. Only one of these two collections is reporting, and it's only reporting on EQ. The other one we didn't know about until we got the second letter a few days ago. The account numbers are the same except for the last digit. It absolutely baffles me that people can just stroll into a hospital/doctor's office and put someone else's name as the responsible party with no correct contact information and get away with it. Seriously and the bills aren't even a lot of money... Less than $100 combined, if she had just given him the bills he would have paid them! Ridiculous. So that's where I've been!
I would follow up with the hospital in writing CRRR. Basically put in the letter what your husband said on the phone and also include who he spoke to. This sounds like a slam dunk once they pull their records and see that he signed nothing agreeing to be the responsible party. IF your husband can prove he was somewhere else (and far away at that), you may want to include that in the letter as well. That being said, this should disappear very quickly. As far as a HIPAA violation.... these are the people: HIPAA Administrative Simplification Statute and Rules that we started the process with against the possible HIPAA violations for my family member. (I still have nothing to report BTW, but just giving you the link in case you're interested in pursuing your own) On a personal note....it's troubling that both of his children had to go to the ER the same day and his ex never informed him. Good luck.
Thanks Mindcrime! My husband called to follow up this morning and they said that they found he did not sign the papers and that he was not responsible for the bills. They told him they were mailing out letters to the CA today saying he was no longer responsible. I will give them a few weeks and then send a letter CRRR if it doesn't disappear on his report. Hopefully we won't need to dig up his old orders showing he was in Washington state while they were at the hospital in Florida. I don't think I will be pursuing the HIPAA violation but it's good information to have so thanks for sharing that! At this point I'm just concerned with cleaning his credit up but I know that will be of use in the future. I'm anxious to hear how you make out, although I know it can be a slow process! And yes, it is very troubling... This is the first he was ever hearing about it... *sigh* What can you do? Not much except now she will get a few collections on her reports. Ha!
Congrats on that working out for you, JMC! And I'm a firm believer in karma. A women dropped a $20 in front me on the street the other day. I honestly think lightning would have struck me in the head if I didn't run up to her w/ the missing bill in my hand. Keep at it - sounds like things are going very well and your husband is lucky to have you helping him so diligently w/ cleaning up his credit.
Good for you Jason!! I really believe that what goes around comes around, so I'm sure some good karma will come your way. My husbands credit has come a LONG way and he finally understands why I'm so obsessed with it. It clicked for him when I showed him the interest rates for home loans for different credit scores... It will save us a ton of money in the long run. I definitely couldn't have done it without everyones help on here so thank you!
As of this morning the collection is gone! Less than 4 days later... So glad the hospital took care of it! I hope the collection is finding itself a nice new home on his ex-wife's credit report!
