It has been 4 years!!!

[meganmesick]

Hello all!!

 

I am new and I have been reading along faithfully. Now, I think I have to list my situation and beg for help. First of all I am in NY. I pulled my free credit report recently just out of curiousity. To my surprise there were multiple medical claims listed on there.

 

I of course contacted the lawyer that was listed. They have verified some of the accounts but not all - they sent me itemized bills from the hospital. One of the accounts that they verified was from the birth of my twins 4 years ago!!!! I had insurance and apparently (from the old bills and junk that I found) they tried to bill insurance and there were some sort of problems. Either way it was a really crazy time - I had two pregnancies in one year, I got laid off from my job, my father died, we moved to another part of the state and I began a new career.

 

I feel I should not be held responsible for these bills. There were some bills that were paid - I mean isn't that some sort of evidence? What also made it confusing was that one of my daughters was sent to one hospital (she needed an NICU and there was not one) and the other stayed at the hospital where I gave birth.

 

I think my next move is to write the CRA's and dispute the bills.

Then I do the HIPPAA letter when the CRA's respond right?

 

My entire "credit" life has been bad - it would probably go up significantly if these CA would stop reporting negatively on my account. I mean I didn't even know I owed ANYTHING!!!!

 

Thanks for listening - any advice would be appreciated!!!!

 

I am beyond stressed out!!!

[94B10]

The best way to deal with this getting informed by reading and reading some more. As far as the medical collections go, the HIPAA process is the the way to go if you have not paid the CA's and once you start the process, do not contact the CA.

 

Another Good thread to read for beginners

.

http://www.creditboards.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=1925

 

http://whychat.5u.com

 

Opt Out(here is a link to read about it an how to do it)

 

http://creditboards.com/forums/index.php?s...8374&hl=opt+out

 

Get old addresses deleted(I would personally get the report from the individual Credit reports from the 3 CRA's, if you use the free credit reports to dispute with this will allow the CRA's response time to your disputes to take 45+5(business days for mailing) instead of 30+5 for the regular reports.

 

Thes first 2 steps are essential before you start ANY type of credit repair.

 

Once you have done that, you send the medical dispute letter FIRST to the CRA's.

 

Purpose of the medical dispute letter is:First, it weeds out any CA that has reported your account without any real assignment or authorization from the OC.

Second, it weeds out accounts that were written off, or discounted by the OC and are not valid.

Third, if the account is verified, it gives you the data you need to pay the OC with the HIPAA letter.

 

http://whychat.5u.com/hipltr.html#DISPUTE

 

Once the account is verified with the information requested with medical dispute letter, then you proceed with the HIPAA letter(and whichever "insert" is applicable)Here's the link to read.

 

http://whychat.5u.com/hipltr.html

 

The inserts are as follows. Read about this more on the link above. Follow Directions Carefully

 

insert "a" - remitting payment to OC in a valid account.

insert "b" - This account is in error. It has either been paid, is a billing error,or was not transmitted in a timely manner to my insurance company.

insert "c" - This is not my account, It has been billed to me in error.

 

My advice is to follow directions carefully as Whychat has laid it out and PLEASE READ before proceeding.

 

Good Luck

Edited June 7, 2006 by 94B10

[meganmesick]

Thanks for the help. I will pull all three reports and send out the CRA letters. I was pretty sure that I had to begin there but wanted verification. I will keep you updated as to how things go. I just want to make sure they can't ruin my credit forever.