jamesny

Hey guys, I currently have a debt with a debt collector. About 25 days ago I sent a settlement letter, offering to pay a percentage of the amount due. I sent it regular first class, since I wasn't opting out of anything or asking them to stop harrasing me - I didn't need proof of arrival. I haven't heard back from them. How long should I wait, and if I still don't hear back how should I proceed? Should I call them? Send it again certified? Thanks.

Hi all, I'm hoping you guys can give me some input about my settlement letter that I plan to send to the CA, I'm pretty nervous about things. Some background: the debt has been validated, it's not on the credit report (hasn't been reported yet), I would like to pay in full and be done with it but I don't have the full amount and definitely don't want to go on a payment plan with a debt collector. The original debt is for $12,500. I posted a question about negotiating with medical debt collectors on the medical forum and didn't get much help, so I did the work on my own and I am posting here hoping to get feedback or opinions. I am hoping to negotiate the debt down $6,000. I have no idea if this is feasible and what the chances are of them accepting. Thanks! Dear Sir or Madame: I am writing in response to a letter I recently recieved from your agency regarding a medical debt. This is not an aknowledgement or acceptance of this debt. I suffer from several ongoing health problems and my only current source of income is social security disability income. However, I would like to take care of my debts as best as I am able and I appreciate any efforts your company is willing to take to work with me. I am currently negotiating medical debts with several creditors and I have a limited amount of money to pay my creditors due to my continuing disabilities. The amount I propose to settle my debt is $6000. This money will be a personal loan from a friend, whom I will then repay over two years time. Therefore, I will be paying in a lump sum. If you accept this settlement, you agree not to report any imformation regarding this debt to a credit agency nor any third party. If the above is acceptable to you, please send me a letter agreeing to these terms, at the address listed above. Upon receipt of this agreement I will send you the agreed amount via money order. Thank you for your time. Sincerely,

Do you have your EOMBs from your insurance?? $24,000 seems like an awful lot for co-pay + deductible. Pay the OC with the HIPAA letter insert "a" http://www.whychat.5u.com/hipltr.html Look up what the correct amount would have been for your services IF you had been fully insured. http://www.cms.gov/R...lthCareConInit/ Check your EOMB s to see what the "patient obligation" was. Thanks for the response. I do have the EOBMs and it was properly billed, the problem is that it was (inpatient) mental health treatment, and my insurance had a yearly max amount that they would pay for mental health-related treatment. So once I hit that figure everything afterwards went straight to me. So the bill is legitimate, and I don't think that procedure is going to work; I am going to have to deal with the debt collector. Are you saying that your "patient responsibility" AFTER the insurance amount paid their portion of the ALLOWED charges was $24,000? Or that the $24,000 was the GROSS amount balance after the ORIGINAL billed amount. In other words, is there a section of the EOMB that shows what the original billed amount was and what the insurance DISCOUNTED amount was. The doctors and hospital billed separately, and they billed weekly. So I got 2 EOMBs per week. For the first few weeks the EOMBs list the amount billed, the insurance discount, then the amount paid by insurance. So I was billed nothing for those dates. Then after the insurance max was hit (I think it was about $25,000), the amount paid by insrance became the patient responsibility. So, on these EOMBs it lists the amount billed, the insurance discount (I still received the insurance discount even on the amount I was responsible for), and then the patient responsibility. After I was discharged, they summed together the hopital and doctor bills, and this is where my final bill came from. So, in other words, lets say the original cumulative billed was $75,000. The insurance discounted amount was $50,000, and insurance paid $25,000. So the remainder my patient responsibility.

Do you have your EOMBs from your insurance?? $24,000 seems like an awful lot for co-pay + deductible. Pay the OC with the HIPAA letter insert "a" http://www.whychat.5u.com/hipltr.html Look up what the correct amount would have been for your services IF you had been fully insured. http://www.cms.gov/R...lthCareConInit/ Check your EOMB s to see what the "patient obligation" was. Thanks for the response. I do have the EOBMs and it was properly billed, the problem is that it was (inpatient) mental health treatment, and my insurance had a yearly max amount that they would pay for mental health-related treatment. So once I hit that figure everything afterwards went straight to me. So the bill is legitimate, and I don't think that procedure is going to work; I am going to have to deal with the debt collector.

Hi everyone, I have a question about a medical bill which has just been sent to collections and is not yet on my credit report yet. I've done some reading on the forum but most posts are about bills which have been in collections for awhile or they are trying to dispute. Here's my situation. I have a medical bill from three years ago which was partially covered by insurance, but my portion was still $24,000. I went on a payment plan and had paid it down to $12,000 by January of this year. The monthly payment was on autopay from my bank, and in January the bank was bought by another bank and my account changed hands. Unbeknownst to me the autopay stopped making payments. I just realized this a few days ago when I got a collections letter for $12,000. I called the hospital and they said that reminder letters should have been mailed to me when they stopped getting payments, but I sure didn't get any. They also said that my account has already been written off for tax purposes and that I should deal with the debt collector. So, I don't want this account to go to collections because I'm currently in grad school and will be looking for jobs next year, and I know that companies pull credit reports. However, I don't have $12,000. I have a part-time job which mostly covers my living expenses and about $8,000 in savings. I don't want to put this on a credit card and then have credit card debt, but if that's my only option I will. I've read about people offering a percentage of their bill to debt collectors, but I think these are for accounts which are already on their credit report. Are debt collectors ever willing to negotiate on bills that have not gone on one's credit report? If so, should I just send them a letter offering $8,000 to settle the bill? Should I include the fact that I'm a student and don't have any substantial income? If not, are there any other options for me? I have read the posts about verifying the debt and opting out. I am willing to do this but I don't think it would get me anywhere - I've looked up this collector and they seem mostly above board for a debt collector, and since this was just sent to collections they should have the right records. I don't want to antagonize the collector if there is a chance of negotiating, but like I said I'm willing to do what you all think is best. Thanks for any advice.