In my previous post, about the pathetic 66.00 medical bill, the dr. office responded back and told me that they will no longer communicate with me and they will not refile any insurance forms and anything submitted to their office will be deleted and thrown away. The CA is under a C&D and VOD, which they have provided to me and it is accurate, with the exception of the insurance. The CA has not contacted me since receivng the C&D and they have marked the account as disputed on EQ and EX, I got it removed off TU, but having a hell of a time with the other 2. What can I do!? http://consumers.creditnet.com/Discussions/credit-talk/t-stubborn-creditor-65948.html
Have you deleted all old addresses off EQ and EXP? If so, you could write a second dispute to each of them through the US Mails, and specifically ask for a reinvestigation, using that word in your letter. Have you seen Why Chat's medical letters? http://whychat.5u.com/hipltr.html
Sounds as if they are within the boundaries of the FDCPA. When you say they validated the underlying debt, how did they do it? That is too say, was the validation sent on the physicians forms or that of the collection agency? Grasping here . . . If it was on the physicians form, you may consider a pay for delete or an agreement to the effect that they will not verify a dispute through the credit reporting agencies. Rare although, it sometimes works. However, if the balance is wrong as reported on your reports that would be a violation of the FDCPA insofar as it would be misrepresenting the amount after you noticed them. I suppose it would also be a violation of the FCRA 1681s-2b since they verified it as well. Rather dubious but, if its all you have . . .
It is reporting correctly, and in dispute, I have use the PFD and they refuse to accept it. They sent a copy of the bill that was apparently sent to me, copy of the registration form and my DL. However, the put in the wrong insurance from the way I read it, and I have contact the Dr and they refuse to do anything about it, they will not refile, they will not look into it. I dont know what else to try. Who can I file complaints with? AG? BBB? Any medical professions I can file complaints with?
Were they in-network, with a contract with your insurer, at the time the service was provided? If so, they may have contractual obligations to file, and to file timely, or to waive the charge. Have you contacted the insurer? They could care less about your good will, but they have to deal with insurers on a regular basis, even ones they have no contract with.
The plan I got was short term medical, while I was waiting for my job's insurance to kick in. There was no network with the plan. I'm having problems finding my member number with insurance and a proper contact, as this was 2 years ago.
Do you have/remember the name of the insurer? You "may" have an out here IF the medical office submitted the insurance claim to the incorrect policy/insurer. 1) I would request (in writing) from the doctor's office copies of your records. IF you had put down the change to your temporary insurance carrier, and you can evidence it, then you have a good chance of clearing this up. The office MUST provide you the copies of your file. Don't let them intimidate you with refusing to talk to you. 2) Try to contact your old insurer, and try to get the account information. This may help with step 1. 3) The "validation" may stand from the CA's position, but if the root cause is a mistake on the billing entity, then the collection itself is incorrect. However, in reality, it will be up to you to get the "evidence". Medical billing is a nightmare, I am a seasoned business person and I still don't grasp their industry! It seems you can just never win with them! If it were me, I would gather all the insurance info I could, and then go in person to the medical office and try and straighten this out. It is much harder to be "tough" face to face than it is in a letter or on the phone.
I live about 1400 miles from the dr office, so I cant visit them. I've been trying to find the information on the insurance, it was some stupid thing I signed up for doing a google search for short term medical and signed up for it. Since I cant visit them, do they have to respond if I fax the information or CMRRR?
If you are requesting copies of your records from a medical provider, their failure to respond may become a medical ethics issue, subject to review by their state licensing board.
Damn them! They are pissing me off, and they are ignorant. "submitted the claim to Aetna as this was the insurance information you provided." Thats a lie, I never gave them any information with AETNA. Even the new patient registration form shows the company in which I gave them the card. "If this was incorrect, you should have contacted our office when you received your first statement." I never received ANY statement from them. "You had ample time to correct this problem if it was incorrect. Your failure to contact our office in a timely manner, has cost this claim to be transferred to your responsibility." Didn't know there was a problem, and any information was incorrect. I sent them an email for request of medical records form. Hopefully, they will respond, "EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY.. WE WILL NO LONGER ACCEPT CORRESPONDENCE FROM YOU. YOU ARE REQUIRED TO CONTACT THE COLLECTION AGENCY."
Is the Aetna policy an old insurer, or entirely not any you ever provided them with? Did they have your correct billing address, and if they had sent you a bill or a statement, would it likely have reached you? Did you receive anything back from your validation request, or do you have anything in your own records, to indicate the insurer and policy number you provided?
By the way, although it might not resolve this problem directly, if they say they won't respond to you, and you want a response, that is one thing that BBB is good for. If you are not getting a response, send it thru BBB, and if they fail to respond back, that will earn them the coveted "unsatisfactory" award for the next 3 years, even on 1 failure to respond.
I haven't had Aetna, since 2002, and I only saw this doctor 2 times, both in April 2005. I only lived in that city/state for 7 months. Yes they had my correct address for 6 months after I visited them, then I moved away. I dont recall if I put in a COA or not though. But I would assume 6 months, they would have sent me some kind of bill as they claim. The statement the CA sent me is from June 2005, which I never received a copy of. They sent nothing back as far as any insurance, only with Aetna, I'm having to find the contact number to get the information about the policy.
It sounds like you would not have had reason to have given them your Aetna policy number from when you had Aetna, since in 2005, you did not have them. Was the Aetna policy number that they had actually for you from 2002, or was it some other person's policy number, indicating they totally messed up maintaining their billing records? Was this medical provider associated with some larger billing operation that might have legitimately have had access to your earlier Aetna insurance info, and therefore might have had it in their system?
I dont keep insurance cards past the time I have coverage. So I have no clue how they got Aetna. I only lived in that state for 6 months and only saw this one dr office 2 times in 1 month. There is a number on the statement they sent to me from Aetna, I have no clue what it is though. Im not fighting with them to get my medical records, they have agreed to send them to me via mail only, they will not fax or email, and I do not want them having my current address, as no one has it. According to the website I read the medical office must send the documents the way I request if it is not difficult to do so.
Why don't you call Aetna and find out what the number is? They might not tell you the person whose policy it is, if it isn't yours, but they should be able to confirm whether or not it was ever your policy, which would indicate the degree of billing screw-up. Do you have records of ordering the short term policy, that might indicate the insurer, such as checkbook, or CC receipts? "I dont keep insurance cards past the time I have coverage" All 20-20 hindsight at this point, but you need to keep records for the period you might need them, which in this case is the period you might have to enforce contracts or deal with messes like this. You don't need to carry old cards around, just keep the copy of the contract, since that is what you paid for.
I would double check with the Aetna phone # as well, they could happen to be the insurer; or the insurer behind the insurer (sometimes the insurance company re-brands their policies under another company's name, but on the back it'ld show that it's handled by the second insurer). Here's an idea... Contact the insurance company (even if you don't know the insurance company's name, still send to the CA & Practice-but the 3-way communication would have the most effect), CCing the practice, and the CA (KNOWING that they have threatened that they will delete it... You're keeping them in the loop, its their choice to delete, but if it goes to court for any reason, they can't argue ignorance). Make sure that you mention that the practice REFUSES to properly bill the insurance company, and has threatened to disregard, and dispose of any and all communications regarding this alleged bill. Make it clear to the CA though, that their client is putting THEM into legal jeopardy, by refusing to address their company's inaccurate billing of the account.
