Can a medical "charge off" be termed an unpaid collection? My husband has two pesky collections from a hospital bill (One I do not think is ours and I am disputing) One is $104 and the other is $97. The collection service is listing them and there is a notation that the original creditor is a hospital. Do you mean that this listing is a violation of the FCRA? They did not contact him to tell him it was going on his CR. By the way Butch. Where where you a few years back? To make a long story short, my mom was hospitalized with no insurance. They handed her a bill totaling over $65,000.(this to a woman on SS) We got a "friend" lawyer onthe advise of my brother "Butch" (Obviously no relation because the lawyer he picked was not good to say the least). We were trying to get a reduction in the bill and they said pay 20 grand and 100 dollars a month or we will put a lein on your house. They did not give us a reduction but the way I figure it my the SOL will run out on the debt at 100 dollars a month. Either way, the debt does not appear on her CR and there is no lien on her property. There are companies that audit hospital bills on the web. I was considering using them but I suspect that the whole amount will never be paid anyway.
from # 3 A*the Assignment of Benefits B* (the document which requires the signature of the person responsible for healthcare payments if the insurance company doesn't pay) Butch ======================= A*Means simply that you authorize your insurance Co. to pay the insurance benefits to the provider instead of paying them to you. B*It has nothing to do with your responsibility. The agreement is between you and the Ins.Co. not you and the provider or the insurer and the provider.
3. REQUEST A COPY OF YOUR CREDIT REPORT. Did you know that medical charge-offs CANNOT be put on your credit report without your express written authorization? It is an outright misconception that the Assignment of Benefits (the document which requires the signature of the person responsible for healthcare payments if the insurance company doesnâ??t pay) acts as an authorization for the collection company to release healthcare related information (e.g. medical bills) to credit reporting agencies. It doesnâ??t. Authorization must be obtained by and between the individual whom the healthcare services pertain to and the collection company trying to resolve the outstanding debt. If this authorization has not been obtained, notify the credit reporting agency, your healthcare provider, and collection companies in writing. Inform them that they are in violation of the Fair Credit Reporting Act. Request to have these marks removed immediately Surely medical charge-offs do not equal medical paid collections since some of the CA's report the hopital names, doctors, etc.? do they??? That would be silly then why would anyone ever pay their medical bills if they could never report it??? Doesnt make sense to me. What am I missing?
I don't think you're missing a thing, Jen. Question becomes more, what are you willing to pay to enforce it. Here's a cut and paste of the whys surrounding this law: According to the American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA), an average of 150 people "from nursing staff to x-ray technicians, to billing clerks" have access to a patient's medical records during the course of a typical hospitalization. While many of these individuals have a legitimate need to see all or part of a patient's records, no laws govern who those people are, what information they are able to see, and what they are and are not allowed to do with that information once they have access to it. According to the National Research Council, individually identifiable health information frequently is shared with: â?¢ Consulting physicians; â?¢ Managed care organizations; â?¢ Health insurance companies â?¢ Life insurance companies; â?¢ Self-insured employers; â?¢ Pharmacies; â?¢ Pharmacy benefit managers; â?¢ Clinical laboratories; â?¢ Accrediting organizations; â?¢ State and Federal statistical agencies; and â?¢ Medical information bureaus. Much of this sharing of information is done without the knowledge of the patient involved. While many of these functions are important for smooth functioning of the health care system, there are no rules governing how that information is used by secondary and tertiary users. Here's a link to the HHS fact sheet, released today: http://www.hhs.gov/news/press/2002pres/20020809.html Background and history: http://aspe.hhs.gov/admnsimp/final/PvcPre01.htm It's about privacy and our right to it, as Americans. Most of our don't know how much we've already lost, how many databases have been created based on information already shared -- this is just one law trying to take some of it back and prevent more from going forward. Sassy
Thank you Sassy for the bedtime reading this evening. I just need to get a good game plan together to tackle these paid collections. They make up all but 2 of my derogs and most are under $100.
Why pay? Because if nobody paid, there would be no doctors or nurses to provide care. Besides, nothing there says they can't sue you for it. If you lose a suit, a judgement will show up on your reports. Gib
What a great way to put this. LOL This issue is so complex it will take sophisticated legal council to hammer your points. SOOO..... I'm going to invent the "Medical Collection Nutcase Series." (Or maybe I'll help you guy's do it) After all, if you threaten to sue a hopsital for releasing medical information without permission they will often be so intimidated they'll just delete. BTW I didn't forget about this thread. I've been waiting to see how many particpants would pick up on the issue. Be sure to read Sassy's thread where, though I had forgotten, this has been hammered pretty well - but without much resolution.
Once a debt is charged off it stays that way. They charge off in order to get a tax break. If once they get the tax break they THEN collect on the account they don't REVERSE the tax break they merely reclaim as new income. The net result is the reversal of the tax break without all the paperwork nightmare it would create. It's a bookkeeping shuffle. (Which is why you should 1099 your settlements btw) So internally they'd call it a paid charge off. Secondly, there's only one slight defect in this logic Jen. Even if they couldn't legally report it, so few people know about their rights they do it anyway. There never will be a significant problem until there's an enormous boost in public awareness. It's silly to assume that wlould EVER happen. Example: 90% of Americans are NOT legally required to file a 1040 tax return either but everyone does it because "somebody" told them they HAD to.
Example: 90% of Americans are NOT legally required to file a 1040 tax return either but everyone does it because "somebody" told them they HAD to. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- You may NOT have to FILE...but you still have to pay... If you are 100% POSITIVE you have paid 100% of what is due...
Don't tell me this wonderful thread only lasted for 2 days! I have to say that I've gotten more info out of this one than any other I've ever seen. I really hope this doesn't mean that we're giving up on med collections. They are difficult and tricky to say the least. I recently just got a response from a CA that included a "Statement of Benefits" from an insurance company along with a letter that had the " This communication is from a debt collector attempting to collect a debt for the aboved ('aboved' is not in the dictionary, LOL (can I sue for the incorrect grammar)) named client and any information obtained..........â? along with a suggestion of payment. I do believe these are violations. Now, I'm pretty sure that this is not proper validation and I intend to send the 15 day request. But what really gets me here is the privacy thing. I don't think I'll pursue that very much in the 15 day letter but I will research it further in the state of TX and see what I can come up with. BTW, I just started doing all of this report cleaning last week and I'm so excited to finally find ways to fight these companies back. I just love sending those mean letters right back at them. It feels so good to be legally mean! Sorry to go off like that. Like I said I'm new at this and the adrenaline has been knocked up a notch or two.
Hi Tuff, We haven't given up on Med Coll., it's just a complex issue. Fortunately medical professionals are especially concerned about being sued. That might be the best thing going for ya. Welcome aboard and keep us posted on what you find out in TX.
Thanks Butch. I am really interested in the Privacy Act laws regarding medical records. As I was searching for info on this it was getting kind of scary because everything that I found said Texas didn't have a Privacy Act. Then I discovered that the legislature recently put a bill on Privacy into law in September of last year. I'm still trying to interpret all of the legal jargon. That's not an easy task in itself. From what I've seen so far it looks like the OC may be in violation by providing the CA with documentation that discloses medical information such as the nature of service performed as listed on the "Explanation of Benefits" from the insurance company. The penalties are much stiffer with the privacy laws as opposed to the FCDPA. If I read it correctly, it limits a judgment to 250,000. I have to wonder if the OC would also be in violation of sending a medical document from a third party (insurance company) without their consent to do so. After all, that brings their name into it also. After a bit more research I may have to consult with an attorney on this one. Thatâ??s what I have so far.......I'll keep posting. .
Look into something called HIPPA. It is a Federal privacy act. I haven't had to deal with it personally yet, but businesses and some collegues of mine are going crazy trying to get into compliance with it.
Here is a link to the HIPPA law. Hope you have some time it quite a read. http://www.hhs.gov/ocr/hipaa/finalreg.html
I have looked at it, but not read it all! I have also asked a question by email on their website twice. I need to know if it was legal for a medical billing service to send health insurance claim forms with medical coding to a ca. No response yet. I hope they answer at some point. Thanks!
So are we basically saying that since a collection company cannot provide proof of services (due to privacy issues), then they can't validate and therefore can't report this account on the credit reports? BTW I would think proof of services would be copies of the nurse's notes/doctor's notes of services rendered ALONG with your initials acknowledging services (pills, baths, xrays, etc). If I am incorrect in my thought process can we get someone (more experienced posters) to post a Plan of Action when addressing medical bill collections? Thanks
