I am having a very hard time with a collection agency: Central Financial Control. I went to the ER and I did not have insurance and had just been laid off. (Overall bad time in my life) The admitting lady told me that they would reduce my bill by 50%. It took 2 months for the hospital to send me a bill. When I received my bill it was for an enormous amount. (Way more than what an insurance company would be billed) Anyway, I wrote to the California address on the bill and told them that the hospital had promised me a 50% reduction. They never responded. I then later called the number on the bill and was told that the account had been handed over to their collection agency, Central Financial Control. I spoke to their collection agency and told them that the hospital had told me that my bill would be reduced by 50% because I was uninsured. The told me "Okay, we'll reduce your bill." Then she puts me on hold and comes back and tells me that they cannot do that afterall. She says that they pulled my credit and noticed that I had a credit card listed on my credit report. She said that it is their policy to not discount bills if the patient has a credit card. At the time all I had was a First Premier credit card with a 350.00 credit limit and it was maxed out. I told her this and she said that it doesn't matter if the card is maxed; the fact that I "have" a credit card is all they need to know to deny a reduction. So, I asked if I could make payment arrangements and she told me that I could, but the account would still be reported to the credit bureaus if I didn't pay the full amount within the next 60 days. Of course, I couldn't pay the entire inflated bill within 60 days so it went on my credit. I swear, Central Financial Control & Tenet Healthcare are evil. Its been a while now and I tried for a PFD and was told that they would not delete the account from my credit reports. They said it was illegal to do so. I applied for an auto loan and the finance manager let me see my credit report. Right there on the report was the name of the hospital. I didn't think that Central Financial Control could legally put the name of the hospital on my credit report? I could really use some help with this one. My next mortgage depends on it.
