I've been trying to clean up my credit over the past year, and I'm afraid I've done something recently to make things worse. I got copies of my report from all the cra's and paid off the 3 collection accounts listed. I then disputed the items so they would be marked paid. The collections appeared originally as a result of trips to the emergency room 3 years ago. Apparently I was billed by the hospital and by "emergency services" on the same visit. Bottom line, the collection agency reported 3 more "accounts" after my dispute, making a total of 5 items. I have 3 "accounts" with the hospital and 2 "accounts" with "emergency services." Is there anything I can do to have them consolidated? Does it look worse to potential creditors to have 5 accounts rather than 2? The total for everyting is $258, and it has been paid. Any ideas on whom to argue with to try to get these consolidated, which seems more correct anyhow , since I only owed 2 entites at the most.
