texasnightowl

I did not send a dispute to the CRA's. First because the collection accounts were not yet showing up on the report I pulled and then because back on page 1 you said not to dispute with the CRA's. I did call the Original Provider back on this $345 debt today. According to them, they *have* pulled it back from the CA and my account is still in financial review due to the documents I sent about the hospital's decision. So, at this very moment, both debts that were assigned to CA's have been pulled back. Now, I still need to watch my reports and make sure these don't show up in future. Once a statement cycle goes by for both OP's, I'll need to recheck everything and then at that point if they collection accounts show up on my report, then I will dispute with the CRA's since both were pulled back. To complicate matters, I did just move this week, so I need to get my addresses updated everywhere, including with the CRA's.

umm...but it was provider #2 that was going to pull my account back from collections "like it was a mistake" so they could adjust the balance based on the charity decision of the hospital. provider #1 actually said they would not do that and then did it anyway. so don't I need to call provider #2 to see if they have done this and see what my adjusted balance is?

Another quickie update. The billing office for original provider #1, the $3500 bill, called me. They said they had pulled the account back from collections. They reviewed the financial assistance/charity data, and adjusted my balance. To $0. They are sending me a statement for my records to reflect that adjustment. I almost fell over. So, I will wait a few weeks...maybe until the first of the year and then check my reports and dispute that if it still appears. I'll be giving provider #2 a call tomorrow to see where we are at. If they are not willing to adjust the balance, I have sold a few things recently and could give them a partial payment. But we'll see where things are at after I call them.

quickie update...the CA that had been calling me did stop. so yay. as for the original providers... #1, with the bill of $3500, they wanted not just the hospital determination letter, but also the itemized bill, showing the total charity deduction. fine, got that. then they also wanted a bill or something in writing from the surgeon showing the charity write off. problem. I never ever got a bill from the surgeon. So, contacted his office. They never billed me because they just went directly to one of the hospital's charity programs which paid half his charges and then they adjusted the bill by that amount. Was finally able to get the surgeon's office to fax some data to the original provider which satisfied them so now they will review it. I'll call back in a week or so and see the status. I do not know if they are pulling it back from collections or not yet. #2, bill of only $345, I had faxed them the hospital letter which is all they wanted/required. So I called to check in with them and no adjustment had been made yet. The csr put me on hold and came back and said they are putting my account into "request" status...essentially pulling it back from collections "like it was a mistake"...so they can review and adjust my balance. This is good news because they are the ones who initially said they would not pull it back. fingers crossed!

One more quick question for now. I did send the letters Thursday, and tracking confirms they were delivered Friday. Even with the instructions not to call me, what are they allowed to call me about? And at what point does it become a violation for them to call? Because one of them called again this morning. Now, they just received the letter Friday which may or may not have been processed for this morning? But at some point it is a violation for them to call unless it is about certain topics, right?

Thanks! I didn't get a chance to swing by the PO today, but I'm going to improvise. I have a couple of regular flat rate envelopes at home already. So I'll use click and ship and print my labels. I'll print them with the receipt portion. Then once I have the labels, and therefore tracking numbers, I'll enter that tracking number in the letter. Then for my files I can just stick the receipt part of the label to the back of a hard copy of the letter.

Thanks! I will get those typed up tonight and mail tomorrow. CMRRR for everything!

So, one more further question. Both CA's sent me the initial letters dated Oct. 18th. So I am still within the first 30 days of contact. Both letters of course say..."unless you notify us within 30 days that you dispute the debt or any portion thereof, the debt will be assumed to be valid." Since I have contacted the original providers who may possibly be adjusting the balances, should I send some sort of short dispute letter to the 2 CA's disputing the balance? For example, something like this:

Well, you are definitely right. It probably is better to ignore them for now and make sure the provider does as they said they will do!

Well, I have an update of sorts already. So, as a brief "sum up": the two bills that went to collections were for radiology ($345) and anesthesiologist ($3500). I'm not sure what jogged things in my head, but I figured it couldn't hurt to call them directly and say "even though you already sent my account to collections, since I do now have a financial decision from the hospital, is it possible for you to adjust my balance like you would have before? and then send the updated balance to the CA?" The short answer is both said yes. The long answer is: Radiology said yes, they can review the letter from the hospital and adjust the balance if needed. They will not however "call back" the account from the CA. And, I will have to call back in a couple weeks to find out if they made an adjustment or not. They will only directly notify the CA. The anesthesiology group also said yes! They will review the letter from the hospital and adjust the balance and notify the CA. However, they may, possibly, call back the account. It is not common, but because the hospital took so long to make the decision and because I talked to them several times (I gave them names and dates), it is at least a possibility. I do not know how much of an adjustment they will make. But at least it temporarily sounds promising. (Obviously I'm hoping for a major adjustment. The CSR told me that they do sometimes adjust them the full amount.) Now, the question...one of the CA's has been calling me each morning the last 4 or 5 days. I have not answered yet. I think it is the CA that has the larger bill ($3500 for anesthesiology). Should I answer next time and tell them that the balance is being adjusted due to financial assistance decisions? Or continue to ignore the calls for now?

Thanks for all the info. Best case, we move and I get a job fairly quickly and I come back for help in sending payment directly to the original provider. Worst case would obviously be that the current original CA's file judgements/sue. But I will keep an eye out for if they attempt to sell the accounts to another CA too.

Well, that figures. But it is what it is. Good to know for future. Thanks. I had someone else with me and both of us felt like I was being pressured to hand over a credit card. I had told them multiple times...unemployed, uninsured...but the person registering me just kept saying your bill is $3274. ah. interesting. I forgot about fiscal years that start in Oct. I'd mostly heard of July-June in addition to calendar year. So. to sum up. For now I can either send a letter to the 2 CA's explaining. Or, since I can't pay, I could just ignore them. Then, at some point in the future if I have enough $$, I can them attempt to pay the OC/health care provider. But come back here first. Anything else I should keep in mind? How often to CA's that buy health care debt sell or transfer the accounts to other CA's? Thank you again for your help!

Thanks for the response! re: the $3500 paid. I don't have an itemized bill. One of the items I do have shows Total charges of $27449. Then shows "Total Patient Payments" of $3274. Then "Total Uninsured Discounts/ADJ" of $12352. Leaving a balance of $11823 which is what was "written off" by the financial assistance decision. Even though I'm "upset" that they made me feel like we had to hand over a credit card to be diagnosed, I can't imagine they will really refund that. re: calls...it is a cell phone. I can simply add the number they've been calling from so far to ignored. I am tempted to talk to them at least once and say no money, no insurance, no job, qualified for hospital assistance. But I don't know if talking to them at all is a good idea. re: signing up for insurance...I can't pay premiums, so can't really do that. As I mentioned in the response above, we are about to move from Texas to Arkansas. A high priority is definitely me finding a job to get health insurance again.

Thanks for the response. Sorry I wasn't able to reply earlier. re: Texas not allowing garnishment of wages...that is good...but the family I am with is moving (and I with them). Any idea about Arkansas? re: Medicaid, I had never looked into it since I know Texas did not expand coverage when the ACA went into effect.

I am not going to explain the whole story, but I was (and still am) unemployed and uninsured. And then I got appendicitis. This ended up with a total of 5 bills to me. The hospital bill (over 27k which they reduced to 12k). The anesthesiologist ($3500). The ER doc ($1200). Pathology ($200). Radiology ($345). Now, the hospital does have a financial assistance (charity) application which I did apply for in June. While the document said they would make a decision in about 45 days, in reality, no decision was made until mid-October. They did award me assistance and my hospital bill is $0. (Aside from the $3500 we put on a credit card in the ER because they made me feel like if I didn't pay I wouldn't be diagnosed. But...nothing I can do about that at this point.) As for the other bills...I did contact all of them and told them that I had applied for financial assistance. All of them told me that they do take the hospital's decision into account. I did call them each at least twice between June and October. Unfortunately, 2 of them, and specifically the anesthesiologist, did send my account to collections anyway. Radiology also went to collections. I received notices in the mail from the 2 collection agencies in the last week and it looks like one of them is starting to call me now. (I haven't talked to them yet though.) I have no money. I am staying with family, so I have a roof over my head and food. But no money. Savings are exhausted. With the Radiology collections bill, I could possibly find a few things to sell and offer partial payment, but not the whole $345. However, for the anesthesiology bill, almost $3500, there is no way. What should I most likely expect? I'm assuming the collections agency isn't going to care about the hospital's financial assistance decision. Suggestions on how to approach the collections agencies?