Are we screwed?

[Sanity]

My husband has been working on his medical accounts by himself. He did not have any knowledge of this forum and was just trying to get things handled. Back story - We have been staying with our in-laws for the last 8 months. We were there to take care of MIL who had terminal cancer. She passed away recently. My FIL agreed to help us with our bills since we took care of MIL.

 

His medical bills are all from the summer of 2008. We had insurance which paid most of the bills but we still owe the amounts due and verified this with the insurance company.

 

1) Doctor bill $290 - They agreed to $145 as a settlement over the phone.

 

2) Clinic bill $1800 - My husband offered them $800 to settle (over the phone) and is waiting for a call back.

 

He was planning on faxing these letters that he found online to these two medical providers and asking them to fax back the agreements. He does not think that they have been reported to the credit bureau's yet but he hasn't actually ordered his credit report.

 

 

http://www.debtconsolidationcare.com/letters/sample24.html

 

http://www.debtconsolidationcare.com/letters/sample22.html

 

Will these letters suffice? He wants to make sure that they don't turn around and sell the remaining debt to a collection agency nor report it to the credit bureau's.

 

3) Radiology bill $650 - When he called them they stated that they had just sent the bill to collections but would pull it back. They asked for his insurance information. He just received a revised bill for $29 and he paid it. This is the only medical bill out of the four that has been paid.

 

4) Hospital bill $1300 - This is the only one in collections. It was NCO and now West Asset Mgmt. After negotiating with them he agreed to pay them $775 if they agreed to remove it from his credit report. They stated they can update it but can't remove it. They said after we made the settlement payment they and my husband could work with the hospital to get it removed. They are going to call him back in two days but he basically left it at, I can't get the money from my dad to settle it if it isn't going to be removed from his credit file. I told my husband to stop all contact until I could post here for advice.

 

Where do I start? I'd like to order his credit report but don't know where to get it. Also, I keep reading about opting out and deleting addresses but don't see how to do this. Is this done before or after he gets his credit report?

 

Secondly, I read whychat's Hippa information.

 

"It will only work if the claim is either inaccurate, or you remit the valid correct amount due with the letter." The claim is accurate but we are able to remit the valid correct amount due with the letter.

 

Do I send the PRE HIPAA MEDICAL DISPUTE LETTER TO CRA first? Is this how I document a current relationship between the Health Care Provider and the reporting CA? What if there isn't a relationship or how do I know if there is one?

 

As far as the other two bills that are not in collection, should he pay the agreed settlement? Should we have them sign an agreement or is there a letter we can send with the settlement payment? The first two bills listed here are original creditor's.

[breeze]

So sorry for your loss. Those settlement letters will not keep them off your credit report. Be careful.

[Sanity]

Thank you.

 

I found whychat's opt out information. http://whychat.5u.com/OPTOUTINST.HTML

 

Do I opt-out at both https://www.optoutprescreen.com/ and http://www.privacyrightsnow.com/optout.htm? Also for the first one, do I do the electronic one for 5 years or the permanent one by mail?

[bonbonXO]

Most of us opt out before staring credit repair and then out back in when we are done, but the choice is your.

This is usually enough, https://www.optoutprescreen.com/

Get paper copies of your husband's credit reports: http://www.ftc.gov/freereports

I think it is better to order them over the phone as opposed to on-line, when you order your credit reports over the phone you get paper copies mailed to you.

The next step would be to delete any old/incorrect addresses, If possible. Experian is easiest to do over the phone, this is the only thing you can dispute over the phone.

Here is some info on deleting old addresses: http://creditboards.com/forums/index.php?s...=105304&hl=

Once that is complete send any CRAs that is reporting any medical collectio

this http://whychat.5u.com/hipaadisp.html

You can list all accounts in one letter

Make sure you HAND ADDRESS the envelope, use personalized stationery and purple or teal font, (preferably italic). This prevents your dispute for being scanned into a computer and processed electronically, it forces a human to actually read it.

 

DO NOT send it RR -WAIT FOR THE FULL RESPONSE FROM THE CRA BEFORE CONTINUING WITH THE HIPAA LETTER PROCESS

 

I am giving you the first few steps for Why Chat's HIPAA process, don't have any more contact with the collection agencies. Usually when the CA are willing to settle they don't have a business association or current relationship between the Health Care Provider and the reporting CA. The Pre-HIPAA dispute http://whychat.5u.com/hipaadisp.html does this for you.

Keep all your information regarding these medical collections in this post, don't start a new one.

Don't Pay the OC until you double check in here first.

[Sanity]

Thank you.

 

He completed the following:

1) 5 year electronic opt-out at https://www.optoutprescreen.com/

 

2) Ordered credit report via mail. He cannot order his free report via phone because we don't actually have a home telephone number. He filled out the mail-in form and will place it in the mail tomorrow.

 

Now we will wait for the reports to arrive before doing anything else.

 

BUT

 

1) What should he do about the doctor's office that he settled with yesterday. Should we just go ahead and send them the money. I am talking about the ones that have not been sent to collections. We do owe the bill and one of them did agree to accept half. We are still waiting on a response from the other one.

 

2) The collection agency sent a letter stating they would pursue a judgment if a payment was received by December. We have never paid them and now we know not to. We want to pay the original hospital in full. But will the collection agency be able to get a judgment while we are doing whychat's HIPPA process?

[Sanity]

After reading the goodwill thread on the credit forum, I thought of another question I wanted to ask here.

 

Is there any chance that the hospital could get the debt back from the CA so we can pay them in full if my husband called them and explained our extraordinary circumstances with my MIL being ill.

 

Or should I just let it alone and follow the process outlined on this forum?

[Why Chat]

After reading the goodwill thread on the credit forum, I thought of another question I wanted to ask here.

 

Is there any chance that the hospital could get the debt back from the CA so we can pay them in full if my husband called them and explained our extraordinary circumstances with my MIL being ill.

 

Or should I just let it alone and follow the process outlined on this forum?

The hospital may NOT have any current relationship with the reporting CA. If the reporting CA has "threatened" a law suit by phone, then it is more than likely that they are NOT an assigned business partner of the OC.

 

If you follow the HIPAA letter program you can pay the hospital AND get it deleted from your reports. It is NOT a good idea to "negotiate" over the phone, as you have NO paper trail.

 

In the meantime, you can go to the HIPAA letter program

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

and look for the link within insert "a" for medical billing fees.

http://www.cms.hhs.gov/HealthCareConInit/

You MAY be able to get the data from your prior or current health insurance Co. even if you didn't have their coverage at all when you had the services. This will give you the CORRECT fees that are allowed for the services.