2 replies to this topic

[tcjarrett]

I have recently started trying to clean up my credit and am learning how to do so. I just found these threads about the HIPPA process so I have not done any of the steps. I have done some other things and I'm wondering if I should now use the HIPPA process or portions of it.

Here is a run down. Had a baby in April 2009. I had insurance thru my job as well as medicaid. Medical provider screwed up somewhere and a bill either did not get submitted for payment or they missed the payment, I'm not sure what happened but they sent it to collections.

Shows on all 3 CR as opened 4/2010, reported 1/2011 original balance 293,outstanding balance 133

I called the CA and they gave me the number to the OC (which she said they aren't supposed to do)

I called the OC's billing dept 4/16/12 and explained this should have been covered by ins and never sent to collections. They said they found the error and they will contact the CA to fix it.

I have a copy of a claims processed form from one of the ins providers that says 159 was paid to provider on 5/24/10 (a year after services performed)
The remaining 133 should have been submitted by the OC to the secondary ins

I called the OC again on 4/18/12 to verify they contacted the CA and asked for a statement to be mailed.

OC sent a copy of my account ledger which shows a zero balance

I disputed the item with the CRA's and gave the reason as ins paid late.

I have not gotten responses from Exp or TU but EQ has finished their investigation and deemed the CA is reporting correctly. It is now showing on my credit as a paid collection.

I am not happy with this because it should not have been a collection, period and I want it deleted completely.


My question is this... how do I dispute it further to have it deleted? Yes it is being reported correctly if it says paid collection, but it never should have been a collection to begin with. I was thinking if I can obtain proof of when the bill was submitted to ins and the ledger etc I could send that info to the CRA's to show the OC messed up. I've never done this before so I dont know if that will work?? Would it work better to go thru the HIPPA process? Or if I send in proof that it was their mistake will I mess up the HIPPA process should I have to do it later? If I do the HIPPA process which portions should I do? I don't need to validate the debt or the relationship between the OC and CA. It was a valid bill just not processed correctly by the OC or the ins (not sure who messed up but when I talked to them they said they found the mistake so I think it was the dr's error) And the CA has updated to report it as paid so they are technically reporting correctly. EQ verified it thru the CA so they are probably just being told it was paid not that the OC never should have sent it in the first place. To me this was an easy, fast deletion and I'll see what the other two decide, but it looks like it's now going to be one of my more difficult and time consuming disputes. Any help is much appreciated!

[Why Chat]

I have recently started trying to clean up my credit and am learning how to do so. I just found these threads about the HIPPA process so I have not done any of the steps. I have done some other things and I'm wondering if I should now use the HIPPA process or portions of it.

Here is a run down. Had a baby in April 2009. I had insurance thru my job as well as medicaid. Medical provider screwed up somewhere and a bill either did not get submitted for payment or they missed the payment, I'm not sure what happened but they sent it to collections.

Shows on all 3 CR as opened 4/2010, reported 1/2011 original balance 293,outstanding balance 133

I called the CA and they gave me the number to the OC (which she said they aren't supposed to do)

I called the OC's billing dept 4/16/12 and explained this should have been covered by ins and never sent to collections. They said they found the error and they will contact the CA to fix it.

I have a copy of a claims processed form from one of the ins providers that says 159 was paid to provider on 5/24/10 (a year after services performed)
The remaining 133 should have been submitted by the OC to the secondary ins

I called the OC again on 4/18/12 to verify they contacted the CA and asked for a statement to be mailed.

OC sent a copy of my account ledger which shows a zero balance

I disputed the item with the CRA's and gave the reason as ins paid late.

I have not gotten responses from Exp or TU but EQ has finished their investigation and deemed the CA is reporting correctly. It is now showing on my credit as a paid collection.

I am not happy with this because it should not have been a collection, period and I want it deleted completely.


My question is this... how do I dispute it further to have it deleted? Yes it is being reported correctly if it says paid collection, but it never should have been a collection to begin with. I was thinking if I can obtain proof of when the bill was submitted to ins and the ledger etc I could send that info to the CRA's to show the OC messed up. I've never done this before so I dont know if that will work?? Would it work better to go thru the HIPPA process? Or if I send in proof that it was their mistake will I mess up the HIPPA process should I have to do it later? If I do the HIPPA process which portions should I do? I don't need to validate the debt or the relationship between the OC and CA. It was a valid bill just not processed correctly by the OC or the ins (not sure who messed up but when I talked to them they said they found the mistake so I think it was the dr's error) And the CA has updated to report it as paid so they are technically reporting correctly. EQ verified it thru the CA so they are probably just being told it was paid not that the OC never should have sent it in the first place. To me this was an easy, fast deletion and I'll see what the other two decide, but it looks like it's now going to be one of my more difficult and time consuming disputes. Any help is much appreciated!

OK, you can do SOME of the HIPAA letter program to get this off your reports.

Opt out
http://www.whychat.5...OPTOUTINST.HTML
Because you have already been in touch with the CA and the OC you do not need to get old addresses deleted UNLESS you moved since April 2009 and did NOT give the OC or the CA your current address.

Because you already disputed the accounts with the CRAs you can skip the initial dispute letter.

Send the reporting CA this:
http://www.whychat.5...hipaa.html#PAID
and then send each CRA that is reporting this as a "paid" collection this:
http://www.whychat.5...aa.html#DISPUTE
Unfortunately, a "paid" collection is WORSE for your credit score than an unpaid one as it is 3 years newer.

If the above steps do not work to get you a total deletion, you will have to send the OC hospital the HIPAA letter insert "b"
editted for your purpose here:

(Your Name)
(address)
(City,State, zip)
s.s.# (social security #)
HIPAA Compliance Office
( health care provider creditor)
(address)
(date)
Dear Sir/Madam;
This letter is in reference to (account #) for services provided to (name of patient) on (date of service).

In regard to the paid bill on this account in the amount of ($___):

This account is reporting as a paid collection on my credit reports. This was caused by your billing error.

It was not properly transmitted in a timely manner to my insurance company.( Documentation from insurance attached)

It should not have been sent to ( name of CA) , therefore I request complete deletion from all your agent (name of CA)'s records and archives as reporting this as a paid collection is a violation of the FCRA, FACTA and the HIPAA privacy rules.

Please be advised that under Federal Statutes. the Fair Credit Reporting Act, (15 U.S.C. § 1681 et seq)and (name of your State)'s Consumer Credit Statutes,and subtitle D of the ARRA ,SEC. 13401. APPLICATION OF SECURITY PROVISIONS AND PENALTIES TO BUSINESS ASSOCIATES OF COVERED ENTITIES;and SEC. 13407(1) BREACH OF SECURITY.—The term ‘‘breach of security’’ means, with respect to unsecured PHR identifiable health information of an individual in a personal health record, acquisition of such information without the authorization of the individual. you may be held liable for the actions of (collection agency name). Please note that the these liabilities are under the penalty rules of the HITECH Act as issued 11/30/2009. .

(a) Duty of furnishers of information to provide accurate information.
(1) Prohibition.
(A) Reporting information with actual knowledge of errors.
A person shall not furnish any information relating to a consumer to any consumer reporting agency if the person knows or consciously avoids knowing that the information is inaccurate.

In addition, the HIPAA and (name of your State)'s Medical Privacy Statutes and the penalty provisions of the ARRA section D, privacy provisions ,the penalty rules of the HITECH Act as issued 11/30/2009 and the FACT Act final rules effective July 1, 2010.are in effect in this situation.

The Privacy Rules prohibits a covered entity from using or disclosing an individual's protected health information ("PHI") unless specifically authorized by the individual or otherwise allowed under the Privacy Rules.

In general, PHI encompasses substantially all "individually identifiable health information" that is transmitted or maintained in any medium. "Individually identifiable health information" includes health information that is created or received by a health care provider, health plan, employer, or health care clearinghouse, and that relates to an individual's physical or mental health or condition, including information related to an individual's care or the PAYMENT for such care.

Your furnishing of my account information to (collection agency name), is not in compliance with HIPAA,or (name of your State}'s Privacy Act, and any subsequent reporting of this account on my credit reports to (credit reporting bureaus) is a clear violation of Public Law 104-191 ("HIPAA") since there can be no permissible business purpose in divulging protected health information to anyone on an account once there is no longer any payment due, this includes reporting such account as a paid collection.

You are required under the FCRA and FACTA to accurately report the status of any account to the credit bureaus, and you are prohibited under the HIPAA and State privacy regulations from doing so on a PAID account, as there is no longer any permitted business purpose.

Therefore I am requesting you promptly rescind all such account information furnished to (collection agency) and require them to purge their records of all reference to this account, and that you insure that any and all reporting of this account is immediately deleted from my credit reports.

This simple procedure to request the deletion of ALL reference to this account from the records of ( collection agency name) and to require them to have this account information deleted in its entirety from my credit reports will resolve this problem completely.

Please respond, in writing within 10 days that you are processing this request.
I am reserving the right, to take appropriate legal and civil action including reporting to any applicable regulatory authorities any lack of cooperation or compliance with this request.

I hereby waive my rights under HIPAA and any State Privacy Act for the single purpose of your transmission of this request and accompanying documentation in any required report you must make to your E &O insurance carrier.

Sincerely,

Edited by Why Chat, 19 May 2012 - 10:54 AM.

[tcjarrett]

I have recently started trying to clean up my credit and am learning how to do so. I just found these threads about the HIPPA process so I have not done any of the steps. I have done some other things and I'm wondering if I should now use the HIPPA process or portions of it.

Here is a run down. Had a baby in April 2009. I had insurance thru my job as well as medicaid. Medical provider screwed up somewhere and a bill either did not get submitted for payment or they missed the payment, I'm not sure what happened but they sent it to collections.

Shows on all 3 CR as opened 4/2010, reported 1/2011 original balance 293,outstanding balance 133

I called the CA and they gave me the number to the OC (which she said they aren't supposed to do)

I called the OC's billing dept 4/16/12 and explained this should have been covered by ins and never sent to collections. They said they found the error and they will contact the CA to fix it.

I have a copy of a claims processed form from one of the ins providers that says 159 was paid to provider on 5/24/10 (a year after services performed)
The remaining 133 should have been submitted by the OC to the secondary ins

I called the OC again on 4/18/12 to verify they contacted the CA and asked for a statement to be mailed.

OC sent a copy of my account ledger which shows a zero balance

I disputed the item with the CRA's and gave the reason as ins paid late.

I have not gotten responses from Exp or TU but EQ has finished their investigation and deemed the CA is reporting correctly. It is now showing on my credit as a paid collection.

I am not happy with this because it should not have been a collection, period and I want it deleted completely.


My question is this... how do I dispute it further to have it deleted? Yes it is being reported correctly if it says paid collection, but it never should have been a collection to begin with. I was thinking if I can obtain proof of when the bill was submitted to ins and the ledger etc I could send that info to the CRA's to show the OC messed up. I've never done this before so I dont know if that will work?? Would it work better to go thru the HIPPA process? Or if I send in proof that it was their mistake will I mess up the HIPPA process should I have to do it later? If I do the HIPPA process which portions should I do? I don't need to validate the debt or the relationship between the OC and CA. It was a valid bill just not processed correctly by the OC or the ins (not sure who messed up but when I talked to them they said they found the mistake so I think it was the dr's error) And the CA has updated to report it as paid so they are technically reporting correctly. EQ verified it thru the CA so they are probably just being told it was paid not that the OC never should have sent it in the first place. To me this was an easy, fast deletion and I'll see what the other two decide, but it looks like it's now going to be one of my more difficult and time consuming disputes. Any help is much appreciated!

OK, you can do SOME of the HIPAA letter program to get this off your reports.

Opt out
http://www.whychat.5...OPTOUTINST.HTML
Because you have already been in touch with the CA and the OC you do not need to get old addresses deleted UNLESS you moved since April 2009 and did NOT give the OC or the CA your current address.

Because you already disputed the accounts with the CRAs you can skip the initial dispute letter.

Send the reporting CA this:
http://www.whychat.5...hipaa.html#PAID
and then send each CRA that is reporting this as a "paid" collection this:
http://www.whychat.5...aa.html#DISPUTE
Unfortunately, a "paid" collection is WORSE for your credit score than an unpaid one as it is 3 years newer.

If the above steps do not work to get you a total deletion, you will have to send the OC hospital the HIPAA letter insert "b"
editted for your purpose here:

(Your Name)
(address)
(City,State, zip)
s.s.# (social security #)
HIPAA Compliance Office
( health care provider creditor)
(address)
(date)
Dear Sir/Madam;
This letter is in reference to (account #) for services provided to (name of patient) on (date of service).

In regard to the paid bill on this account in the amount of ($___):

This account is reporting as a paid collection on my credit reports. This was caused by your billing error.

It was not properly transmitted in a timely manner to my insurance company.( Documentation from insurance attached)

It should not have been sent to ( name of CA) , therefore I request complete deletion from all your agent (name of CA)'s records and archives as reporting this as a paid collection is a violation of the FCRA, FACTA and the HIPAA privacy rules.

Please be advised that under Federal Statutes. the Fair Credit Reporting Act, (15 U.S.C. § 1681 et seq)and (name of your State)'s Consumer Credit Statutes,and subtitle D of the ARRA ,SEC. 13401. APPLICATION OF SECURITY PROVISIONS AND PENALTIES TO BUSINESS ASSOCIATES OF COVERED ENTITIES;and SEC. 13407(1) BREACH OF SECURITY.—The term ''breach of security'' means, with respect to unsecured PHR identifiable health information of an individual in a personal health record, acquisition of such information without the authorization of the individual. you may be held liable for the actions of (collection agency name). Please note that the these liabilities are under the penalty rules of the HITECH Act as issued 11/30/2009. .

(a) Duty of furnishers of information to provide accurate information.
(1) Prohibition.
(A) Reporting information with actual knowledge of errors.
A person shall not furnish any information relating to a consumer to any consumer reporting agency if the person knows or consciously avoids knowing that the information is inaccurate.

In addition, the HIPAA and (name of your State)'s Medical Privacy Statutes and the penalty provisions of the ARRA section D, privacy provisions ,the penalty rules of the HITECH Act as issued 11/30/2009 and the FACT Act final rules effective July 1, 2010.are in effect in this situation.

The Privacy Rules prohibits a covered entity from using or disclosing an individual's protected health information ("PHI") unless specifically authorized by the individual or otherwise allowed under the Privacy Rules.

In general, PHI encompasses substantially all "individually identifiable health information" that is transmitted or maintained in any medium. "Individually identifiable health information" includes health information that is created or received by a health care provider, health plan, employer, or health care clearinghouse, and that relates to an individual's physical or mental health or condition, including information related to an individual's care or the PAYMENT for such care.

Your furnishing of my account information to (collection agency name), is not in compliance with HIPAA,or (name of your State}'s Privacy Act, and any subsequent reporting of this account on my credit reports to (credit reporting bureaus) is a clear violation of Public Law 104-191 ("HIPAA") since there can be no permissible business purpose in divulging protected health information to anyone on an account once there is no longer any payment due, this includes reporting such account as a paid collection.

You are required under the FCRA and FACTA to accurately report the status of any account to the credit bureaus, and you are prohibited under the HIPAA and State privacy regulations from doing so on a PAID account, as there is no longer any permitted business purpose.

Therefore I am requesting you promptly rescind all such account information furnished to (collection agency) and require them to purge their records of all reference to this account, and that you insure that any and all reporting of this account is immediately deleted from my credit reports.

This simple procedure to request the deletion of ALL reference to this account from the records of ( collection agency name) and to require them to have this account information deleted in its entirety from my credit reports will resolve this problem completely.

Please respond, in writing within 10 days that you are processing this request.
I am reserving the right, to take appropriate legal and civil action including reporting to any applicable regulatory authorities any lack of cooperation or compliance with this request.

I hereby waive my rights under HIPAA and any State Privacy Act for the single purpose of your transmission of this request and accompanying documentation in any required report you must make to your E &O insurance carrier.

Sincerely,

You are awesome. Thank you so much for your quick response and clear instructions. I will follow them and if I have any problems or questions, will update!

Edited by tcjarrett, 19 May 2012 - 02:09 PM.