Bill collector vent!

**JustJoy** · 01-24-2007, 08:29 AM

This past summer I racked up 12K in medical bills. The good news is that my insurance covers it 100%. The bad news is that they are dragging their feet BIG in paying. As of right now a little less than half of the bills have been paid. A couple of months ago I got my first call from a bill collector. I told them I'm covered by my insurance 100% and wouldn't be sending them any money out of my pocket. I proceeded to call my insurance and they said they'd get the payment out asap. Well I guess they didn't because a few weeks ago the collection calls started again. They are calling once, sometimes twice a day and it's driving me insane. DH and I have both been calling the insurance co. and they keep saying it will be taken care of. But everytime I check online the bills are still outstanding!

I've never had to deal with bill collectors before and my anxiety is thru the roof! I am also freaking out about how this is going to effect my credit rating. Does anyone know? This is not my fault and I end up getting punished for it

**FrugalMomof3** · 01-24-2007, 08:39 AM

You need to contact each of the creditors to whom is owed money and explain the situation, once they know what's going on you can ask them to please refrain or remove any derogitory marks on your credit report because your insurance company is held 100% liable for any medical bills.

I hope this helps but let us all know how it goes.

**Edelweiss** · 01-24-2007, 12:06 PM

You can send what's called a "Cease and Desist" letter and they have to stop trying to contact you, by law. Basically, it's just a letter that explains the situation and tells them not to contact you. You need to have it notarized and send it certified and signature required.

One caveat: once you send a Cease and Desist, you need to be vigilant about contacting your insurance company to make sure the bills get paid. The hospital's relationship is with you, not the insurance company, so they will continue to report a derogatory payment history to the credit bureaus until the bills are paid.

**StellaS** · 01-24-2007, 12:39 PM

[QUOTE=JustJoy;666661 I proceeded to call my insurance and they said they'd get the payment out asap. DH and I have both been calling the insurance co. and they keep saying it will be taken care of. But everytime I check online the bills are still outstanding!
[/QUOTE]

Don't call. Write. You'll want this information in all files, with all parties. And to shake things up a bit, I'd copy whatever upper-managment-person or top-dog that might not like this type of attention. Someone who might start calling staff in, wondering why this hasn't been taken care of. Give details, give dates. Copy your letters to your insurance company, the collection company, the hospital and your dh's HR department.

**StellaS** · 01-24-2007, 12:40 PM

Hm. No edit feature to fix my quotes. Sorry!

**JustJoy** · 01-24-2007, 01:00 PM

Thank you all so much! I'm going to get working on it right away!

**Nemeweh** · 01-24-2007, 05:06 PM

Joy,

The letter you would want would be a "Limited" Cease and Desist. When any Bill collector contacts a person by phone, that person has the right to tell them "it is inconvenient, for you to contact me by phone. Please send all correspondence in writing by mail. Please do not call in the future." (ps. - Don't give them your address, just because let's face it.. these guys are usually jerks and why would you do their work for them? /evil grin hehe)

The risk you run by issuing a FULL Cease and Desist, is that you are giving a Bill Collector free reign to then get a legal judgment against you, without having to even notify you that they are taking you to court!

Also, make sure any phone calls you receive by the said same collector after giving them the Limited Cease and Desist, are recorded...make sure you inform the collector you are recording the phone call (many will hang up at that point) then let them hang themselves. Each violation of the rules of the FDCC are punishable by fines up to $2000.00 I believe.

A big shout-Out to Creditboards.com and WhyChat's Credit confusion ! Without those two sites, my credit reports would be just Gawd-Awful, AND I would've never found the village.

**JustJoy** · 01-24-2007, 05:54 PM

Nemeweh! Thank you!

**dwallyfam** · 01-24-2007, 06:13 PM

FYI, per most state insurance rules, the insurance company has to pay. deny or ask for additional information within 90 days of the date of the medical visit. I would also contact you state insurance department and file a complaint with them. They will contact the insurance company and ask them to explain what is taking so long. If it is not to the insurance departments satisfaction they can make them pay a fine along with the bill. Insurance companies hate state insurance inquiries. I know I have had to answer my share of them.

Double check with the insurance company that they are not wanting any information from the Dr. or yourself. Also state that to the insurance commissioner that you are being harrassed by collectors and if any addditional fees are being charged. This way the state can make them pay those as well.

**littlemotherhaywood** · 01-24-2007, 07:32 PM

I just wanted to say I'm sorry you have to deal with this. Someone dropped the ball and now you have to deal with it. That's not fair. Good advice so far. This is most likely affecting your credit report so the sooner you can get a resolution the better and you should be able to get the negatives removed with enough diligence. Good luck

**claimsgirl66** · 01-24-2007, 07:58 PM

I have never been in your position, but my daughter was a couple of years ago after having her baby. Same sort of scenario. She was so overwhelmed I ended up drafting letters to the hospital and the collection co as well as the insurance carrier, and it was resolved pretty quickly afterwards. I would recommend also sending a copy of your correspondence to the Collection co to the hospital and the ins company as well...basically you need a really good paper trail and send everyone a copy of your letter, or fax if you have access to a fax machine, as the ladies advised. In our case, i sent a bunch of letters, advised did not want credit to be ruined due their failures and expected a response promptly in writing. Good luck.

**sondance** · 01-25-2007, 10:21 AM

I don't know if anyone mentioned this or not, but make sure and check your credit report. Since it went to collections I would guess it's on your credit and you will want to have it removed.

**Birdie** · 01-25-2007, 11:28 AM

You need to contact your insurance company again. But before you do, you need to have enough information to follow up on each bill.

You need for each bill: the date of service, the billed procedure and the billed amount for each provider.

THEN, contact your insurance and get the status on each bill separately. For them to tell you generically, that the money is about to be paid is not enough detail to take care of each bill.

If you don't get a clear answer on each bill, ask to speak to a supervisor. They should be able to tell you whether they have each bill processing in their computer system, whether it is paid or not and whether the claim is in review for any reason.

Good luck. Remember, you....not the insurance company, are liable to the provider who rendered the services. Then the insurance is liable to you based on your insurance contract...

Hope this helps.

**JustJoy** · 01-30-2007, 05:37 PM

Well I spent another 2 hours on the phone today with my insurance company

They finally figured out (I must have talked to 6 people...all trying to pass the buck to someone else) that the reason they are not paying is because the hospital failed to precertify certain things. So now I have to contact the hospital and have them write precertification letters for all the unpaid bills individually..... if they want to be paid! I plan on going to hospital in person on Thursday and try to clear this crap up. I'm not even going to bother calling them.... it doesn't work.

Let me just say this........ I HATE HMO's!!!

**PAVallygrl** · 01-30-2007, 05:51 PM

That seems to be the latest "buzz word" with the insurance companies and I'm starting to wonder if it's a way for them to get out of paying. "pre-certify"? I have a friend who was in a very bad accident,unconcious and rushed to the hospital and brought right into surgery. The insurance company pulled the "pre-certify" crap with them too. Are brains and common sence not a "pre"-requirement for employment then? I've never heard of such nonsence. Hope everything works out for you.