PFD on a Medical Collections?

[nicki3200]

Hello everyone! I’ve been working on cleaning up my credit and things are going pretty well but I had some medical bills that went into collections a few years ago. Originally there were with a few with different CAs but just about 6 months ago one CA bought up all of them. I have finally saved up enough money to pay the entire lot of them in full, but by this point I am very worried that I am going to get sued very soon as I just got a 3rd letter a few days ago from this CA saying my case was ‘up for review’ and this same company did take my parents to court a long time ago over some bills they had in collections.

 

I’ve been reading about the HIPAA process and needless to say I would really like to get these deleted off of my credit report but I’m very afraid that by the time I had went through the proper HIPAA steps the CA will have already sued me. (I have Opted out but I have not yet started getting old addresses taken off my reports) So here is my question…would it be advisable to go ahead and try to do a PFD? If they don’t accept it and I go ahead and PIF to keep myself out of court can I then try using the HIPAA process a few months down the road to then get those things deleted from my credit report? Of course I would love to not have those blemishes on my report but at this point I am more concerned with just not getting sued. Thank you in advance for any advice, this is a great credit board and I've already learned so much just from reading everyone’s posts!!

[Why Chat]

Hello everyone! I’ve been working on cleaning up my credit and things are going pretty well but I had some medical bills that went into collections a few years ago. Originally there were with a few with different CAs but just about 6 months ago one CA bought up all of them. I have finally saved up enough money to pay the entire lot of them in full, but by this point I am very worried that I am going to get sued very soon as I just got a 3rd letter a few days ago from this CA saying my case was ‘up for review’ and this same company did take my parents to court a long time ago over some bills they had in collections.

 

I’ve been reading about the HIPAA process and needless to say I would really like to get these deleted off of my credit report but I’m very afraid that by the time I had went through the proper HIPAA steps the CA will have already sued me. (I have Opted out but I have not yet started getting old addresses taken off my reports) So here is my question…would it be advisable to go ahead and try to do a PFD? If they don’t accept it and I go ahead and PIF to keep myself out of court can I then try using the HIPAA process a few months down the road to then get those things deleted from my credit report? Of course I would love to not have those blemishes on my report but at this point I am more concerned with just not getting sued. Thank you in advance for any advice, this is a great credit board and I've already learned so much just from reading everyone’s posts!!

You can do what you wish, however a PFD seldom works. At BEST you will have it reporting as a "paid" collection. In addition, once you have made any offer in writing to the CA you can no longer use the HIPAA letter program.

 

How old is this account?? If it is more than 4 years from the dates of service the CA cannot sue you as it would be time-barred.

In addition, it is illegal for a CA to "aggregate" a group of different accounts into a single lawsuit.

Edited October 16, 2008 by Why Chat

[nicki3200]

Oh really!?! I didn’t know that they couldn’t lump all the accounts into one lawsuit! That actually makes me feel a little better as the total amount is over $1800 but most of the accounts are only around $200. Those are all under 4 years old but there is one that more than the others at about $900 but I think it’s really close to being 4 years old, I’ll have to go back and check on the actual date of service. Knowing that I think I will roll the dice and try to go through the HIPAA process…I’ll keep my fingers crossed that I can get it done before the CA tries to do anything else (if they even do). Thanks so much for the advice Why Chat!!