Medical Collection, Vanishing TL, Texas ... Confusion

[lkdsjf]

Hello everyone!

 

Newbie here. I have been poking around for a few days reading the beginner stuff and trying to get my bearings. There is so much info and I have learned a lot already. I do have some questions about a particular situation I find myself in.

 

I was admitted into hospital and incurred charges from 05/08/01 to 05/10/01. I received my first bill on 06/15/01 and the second on 07/15/01. After the second bill I, apparently, made payment arrangements with the hospital as I have a bill dated 08/14/01 requesting my first $100.00 installment, which i did pay by check on 09/25/01. After the initial payment I was unable to keep up with the payments.

 

The first collection notice was dated 11/30/01 and did reference the hospital as their client. The second notice is dated 02/01/02 and is from the same CA. I do not believe that i responded in any way to these notices. The third collection notice i have was dated 12/13/02 from a second CA and does list the hospital as their client. The fourth notice is dated 05/09/03 from a CA with a different name but the notice is identical to the previous one (just a name change?).

 

In January I pulled a 3-in-1 through my bank and an TL for this debt was listed for all three CRAs with the hospital as the collector and an open date of 11/2002. This past Monday, June 30th, I pulled another 3-in-1 from the same source and the TL is gone, nowhere to be found. Yesterday I pulled reports from all three CRAs and got them all except Equifax (they want ID verification), to get around this delay I signed up for a 30 day trial at myfico.com and got to the Equifax report. Just like the latest 3-in-1 the hospital TL is absent from these reports. This was good news until I checked the mail and found a collection notice dated 06/27/07 from a new CA representing yet another company that, apparently, now owns this debt. Until now the reference number has been the same for notices on my credit report. This letter has a new reference number and a demand to contact them within 30 days.

 

What concerns me the most is the fact that the TL was removed from my reports before 7 years. Could the removal of this TL have been part of the negotiations for the purchase of this debt by the new company so that they can report it to the CRAs in stead? Did I catch them in the middle of this transfer? Is it even possible (legal?) for a TL to be taken off a report just to be put right back on? Should I request DV now before they have a chance to report it if they have not already? I live in Texas so I can add TFC, right?

 

Is the new CA just poking me to see if I screw up and acknowledge the debt thereby starting over to SOL?

 

I have read PsychDoc's Credit Repair School For Beginners and WhyChat's stuff is up next. I'm saving FCRA and FDCPA for this weekend. Thrilling. I may be jumping the gun with this post and if so just tell me. The vanishing TL and the collection letter in one week just freaked me out.

 

Oh, and one more thing. This is, um, odd and annoying. The new collection letter that I got is from the company that I work for, a totally separate division but the same company. I did not know my company did this kind of work. Imagine my surprise when I open a letter from what i think is my job and it turns out to be a collection notice. What I'm wondering is if it's possible for them to be feeding the credit checks that they do on their employees, before they are hired, to the division that handles collections, and then contacting the OC and offering to buy the account? Or am I just being a little too paranoid?

 

It's almost 4am, I should have been in bed hours ago. Thanks in advance for any direction and advice. I'll check back after work tomorrow.. err today.

[CB Owners]

Welcome to CreditBoards! We hope that you find what you're looking for here.Some helpful tips:

• Your post may not get a reply right away. Don't be discouraged, this is a very busy board. If it falls off of the first page, feel free to reply to your post yourself, with the word *bump* in the text. This will *bump* your post back up to the top of the board.
• If you haven't yet, take a peek at out Newbies Section. Everything that you need to know is in that forum, for the most part! It's a lot of reading, we know, but this credit stuff can have a steep learning curve. In no time, you'll be posting like the pros!
• If you find that someone is discourteous to you, use the REPORT button at the bottom of every post - that will ensure that a moderator or admin looks at the post and decides if it is against the TOS.
• Off -topic posts should go in the General Forum.

Again, welcome to the CreditBoards family! CB Admin: LKH, Pam, radi8, breezeCB Mods: cotterpin, CargoJon, CramitCCCA's, fla-tan, MarvBear, psp, pryan67Forum Leads: TeeSharice, orangecrush and Four20Nik

[Momof5]

If the 9/25/01 was your only payment, then 10/26/01 is your DOFD. Now based on your state, this appears to be out of statute. IF that is the case for your state, I would send the the FOAD letter telling that it is out of statute. Most CAs will not bother with consumers that know this and most likely will close your account. As of 10/26/08, no one can report this debt.

 

Basically, when the last CA sold your debt, they had to delete it from the credit bureaus. That is why it has been deleted. The new CA may place it there, but if you act quickly, they may close it without reporting it. I have had success doing this.

[elle2075]

Hello everyone!

 

Newbie here. I have been poking around for a few days reading the beginner stuff and trying to get my bearings. There is so much info and I have learned a lot already. I do have some questions about a particular situation I find myself in.

 

I was admitted into hospital and incurred charges from 05/08/01 to 05/10/01. I received my first bill on 06/15/01 and the second on 07/15/01. After the second bill I, apparently, made payment arrangements with the hospital as I have a bill dated 08/14/01 requesting my first $100.00 installment, which i did pay by check on 09/25/01. After the initial payment I was unable to keep up with the payments.

 

The first collection notice was dated 11/30/01 and did reference the hospital as their client. The second notice is dated 02/01/02 and is from the same CA. I do not believe that i responded in any way to these notices. The third collection notice i have was dated 12/13/02 from a second CA and does list the hospital as their client. The fourth notice is dated 05/09/03 from a CA with a different name but the notice is identical to the previous one (just a name change?).

 

In January I pulled a 3-in-1 through my bank and an TL for this debt was listed for all three CRAs with the hospital as the collector and an open date of 11/2002. This past Monday, June 30th, I pulled another 3-in-1 from the same source and the TL is gone, nowhere to be found. Yesterday I pulled reports from all three CRAs and got them all except Equifax (they want ID verification), to get around this delay I signed up for a 30 day trial at myfico.com and got to the Equifax report. Just like the latest 3-in-1 the hospital TL is absent from these reports. This was good news until I checked the mail and found a collection notice dated 06/27/07 from a new CA representing yet another company that, apparently, now owns this debt. Until now the reference number has been the same for notices on my credit report. This letter has a new reference number and a demand to contact them within 30 days.

 

What concerns me the most is the fact that the TL was removed from my reports before 7 years. Could the removal of this TL have been part of the negotiations for the purchase of this debt by the new company so that they can report it to the CRAs in stead? Did I catch them in the middle of this transfer? Is it even possible (legal?) for a TL to be taken off a report just to be put right back on? Should I request DV now before they have a chance to report it if they have not already? I live in Texas so I can add TFC, right?

 

Is the new CA just poking me to see if I screw up and acknowledge the debt thereby starting over to SOL?

 

I have read PsychDoc's Credit Repair School For Beginners and WhyChat's stuff is up next. I'm saving FCRA and FDCPA for this weekend. Thrilling. I may be jumping the gun with this post and if so just tell me. The vanishing TL and the collection letter in one week just freaked me out.

 

Oh, and one more thing. This is, um, odd and annoying. The new collection letter that I got is from the company that I work for, a totally separate division but the same company. I did not know my company did this kind of work. Imagine my surprise when I open a letter from what i think is my job and it turns out to be a collection notice. What I'm wondering is if it's possible for them to be feeding the credit checks that they do on their employees, before they are hired, to the division that handles collections, and then contacting the OC and offering to buy the account? Or am I just being a little too paranoid?

 

It's almost 4am, I should have been in bed hours ago. Thanks in advance for any direction and advice. I'll check back after work tomorrow.. err today.

 

Acknowledging the debt won't start the SOL over here in TX. It is out of SOL and you need to send them a request for validation ASAP. You should reread the newbie info and keep reading because thinking that responding starts over your SOL shows that you haven't understood all that you've read.

Be sure to check out the TX thread too.

[lkdsjf]

Thank you for your speedy replies.

 

I have done a lot more reading and I understand the HIPAA procedure now. However, it seems to apply to people where the CA is reporting to the CRAs. At this time there is no TL on my reports for the debt. From what I have read WhyChat says to never DV a CA for a medical collection because this is basically asking for the info that HIPAA is supposed to prevent being transmitted in the first place. At this point I don't KNOW that this is a medical collection.

 

The collection letter shows the account being held by Collect FUBAR LTD. (or some such tripe) not the OC, and being collected by a massive company that is in cahoots with several other massive companies, which shall remain nameless.

 

In order to use the HIPAA procedure (which is what I would like to do, to keep this off my reports) I need to somehow get validation that this debt is indeed the one I believe it is and that the new CA has authorization to collect on this debt, right? But how do I go about that if this is not reported to the CRAs (yet) and I'm not supposed to DV the CA?

 

If I do DV the CA and they do validate and provide the name and address of the OC (the letter says they will do both) where does that leave me? Have I not just asked them to violate HIPAA?

[lkdsjf]

I just noticed that I should have posted this thread in the Medical forums. I do apologize.

[lkdsjf]

I also just noticed that the first line of my last post looks like I'm asking for speedy responses. I was actually thanking elle2075 and Momof5 for their initial response.

 

As this post really belongs in the medical forums should I repost there? I don't want double post as that is probably against board etiquette as well.