I have medical bills that have gone to collections. The CA's have contacted me and there is more than one. What are the Pro's and Con's of paying the medical office (if they accept the payment) instead of the CA? If I pay the medical directly, will it affect the CA showing on my CR? Can I have the CA taken off if I never deal with them? My other option will be the PFD letter to the CA.
Once any original creditor - credit card, car loan outfit, and yes hospital/medical office turns anything over to a collection gang you have to deal with the collection goons. Original outfit has written off the amount, and not in/on their books anymore. Sure, you can attempt to walk into medical office's bookkeeping dept, and say "here's a payment", but they will tell you to mail that payment to the collection goons.
I have read in some threads that many/some medical CA's are simply an extension of the medical billing department. I paid a 1.5K debt to the local "clinic" after it had been in collections for 11 months. I don't know if it was ever on my CR before but it is not now. On a side note... I have paid another medical collections to the CA and it took 30 days before they notified the medical facility (I guess they upload data monthly.) so my family could not be seen there (without cash up front) until they received confirmation of payment. If it is an option, does anyone know if it is beneficial - pertaining to CR - to pay original medical office? I may be in a very unique situation.:-(
#1 $162 Placed 1/07 updated 8/07 (Midsouth) #2 $150 Placed 2/07 updated 8/07 (Midsouth) #3 $87 Placed 2/07 updated 5/07 (Midsouth) #4 $348 Placed 3/07 updated 11/07 (NCO-Medclear) #5 $348 Placed 3/07 updated 11/07 (NCO-Medclear) #6 $348 Placed 1/07 updated 4/07 (Nco Financial) What's really nice is that is for ONE vist to the ER! Doctor check ONLY! NO TESTS!!!! I am still verifying the debt has not been sold more than once. The last three are all the same amount of money. This is why I am wondering about paying the original creditor. All of these are from a single visit to the same hospital - AFTER INSURANCE!!!!
Hate to be harsh but, the above is simply untrue. The amount is not outside the province of the original entity unless it is sold. Therefore, they can make demands upon the third party delegate/collector. As this applies to the OP's question, you're better off dealing with the medical providers directly. Better yet, dispute the tradelines through the credit reporting agencies. See if any are deleted. For the ones which aren't, see if you can pay it in lieu of deletion.
I will be contacting the medical facility Monday morning. I'll let you know what happens. MANY THANKS FOR ALL THE SUGGESTIONS!!! This is site is a bottomless vat of experience and knowledge!
WOW! I've had some good stuff happen! #1 - Paid at original Creditor #2 - Paid at original Creditor #3 - Paid at original Creditor #4, 5, & 6 - Billing dept. apoligized for not billing insurance or me properly and removed all three ($1,044 total!) items from collections and bureaus. They are sending me a statement reflecting the zero balance! It is past the time to file with insurance on these so they are "writing off the debt" as "internal billing error". Honey worked better than vinegar on 4, 5, & 6. :-D
Glad it worked out for you. By any chance were these HCA medical facilities and if so, were the collection entities West Asset Management? I've seen this issue a lot in VA/TN.
No HCA. Sorry. This was a small hospital and I don't mind telling you because I don't live there. I was visiting hence the ER visit. They have no walk-in clinic. Geneva In-Patient on the last three. They never billed the Insurance even though the hospital forwarded our insurance information. They were very apologetic. My only beef now is that NCO-MedClear is still calling and they said that unless they get something faxed to them, it will have to remain on my bureau. I don't have my zero balance statement yet to fax. I was unable to reach anyone on a Friday afternoon at Geneva In-Patient. It's weird, when I told Lisa at NCO what the deal was, she supposedly talked to her supervisor and said that she could give me 24 hours to come up with the document. I never asked, "Or what?" I should have - lol. They haven't had it long enough for legal action and it's only for one of the three bills. Three of us went on the same day and one got sold to NCO and two didn't. I asked why she could not just call and ask. She said that it was sold to them and the account no longer belonged to GIP. We will get it all worked out on Monday, I hope!:-o
