I recently sent a validation request to a CA and didn't hear from them. Two weeks later I sent another one stating that I would sue them for FDCPA violations. Now today I receive a letter in the mail which is a printout from them of two bills for which my wife had received medical treatment. The bill does not have my name on it anywhere, is not from the original OC. It DOES have the amounts of the services and payments made by my insurance company though. However, the amounts that they say I owe in this printout is far more than the amount they say I owe on my credit reports. They have not notified the bureau of the dispute but in fact have verified..another FDCPA violation. They may be liable for FCRA violations since there is an error in the amounts they say I owe. I sent them another letter today saying that I will be compiling a factual summary of these violations and will see about suing them. I offered to settle out of court if they will contact me. Did I mess up anywhere?
What does your insurance company's Explaination of Benefits form say? They may be contractually bound (if they are "in network") to accept payment limited by their agreement with your insurance plus your co-pay.
My insurance has paid the 80% that they were supposed to actually and I am responsible for 20%. I don't want to rip them off but I want validation before I go paying off this stuff. I want to be sure I owe just that amount, I want this off my credit, and I want them to be held liable for their violations.
Did the OC ever send you, or your wife, a bill? Did that amount agree with the insurance company's stated co-pay?
If the print out is not from the OC, its not validation. Wollman opinion. Also, validation must be for the correct amount, and MUST show all transactions affecting that amount. So, the OC must provide to the CA, who will then provide to you an invoice showing... Amount of services. Amounts received from third-parties. Any other amounts credited to the account. etc. And when all those invoices are AUDITED, they must come to the exact amount that the CA is claiming is owed, to the penny. If the amount is different, then the CA has to prove that any additional amounts are allowable under the law. And I mean AUDITED, you need to look over the validation with a fine-tooth comb, as if you were going over the books for a large phantom corporation which had a big E on their front steps. You need to take the time to plug all the numbers from their validation into Excel (or an adding machine, if you don't have a spreadsheet), and be as picky as you need to be. If as much as a penny is unaccounted for, demand to see the receipt for that penny, even if the difference is in your favor... The reason for that is what if you make a payment to them, then they use the payment to extend the SOL for sueing you, if the payment can extend the SOL in your location; and then they suddenly realize that they can try to nail you for the difference between the invoices & the amount that the CA claimed was owed. I had one company which couldn't understand why I would be argueing when they were trying to say what was owed was 40% (now almost 50%) less than their invoices. DUH! If they can provide documentation for a higher amount, you are not protected until they provide you provide proof to substantiate the lower amount.
