WhyChat, yesterday I was served papers to go to court on a fairly recent medical bill. I am currently waiting responses from my Pre-Hippa letters (30 days are up on Friday), but I am not positive this is one that I disputed. The summons does have an accounting from the hospital detailing who the patient was, date of service and amount owed.

My question is this, can I pay the OC with insert A, and continue the process? Court date is at the end of this month, so if I get started, I may just have time to get this taken care of before then, and avoid a judgement....

Thanks for your help, and all that you have done and share with the rest of us, I do hope that God blesses you greatly for your kindness.

In this case your dispute of a recent bill MAY have triggered the lawsuit.
Is the amount claimed correct??
Can you pay it in full??

Yes, pay it with a money order with the endorsement "for deposit only etc. etc.", but do NOT use the HIPAA letter. Instead use a copy of your most recent bill from the OC and enclose a short note stating that you JUST became aware of this overlooked bill and are enclosing payment in full. On the front of the money order where it says "for" put your HOSPITAL billing account # and date of service, like this: act.#xxxx DOS xx/xx/xxxx,Name(of patient).

Make a copy of the money order, front and back and the note, send it CMRR to the Hospital's billing dept. address, not the legal dept.

Then, as soon as THAT is done, file an answer with the Court stating that this account was paid in full to the OC and request a dismissal with prejudice. DO NOT state WHEN the bill was paid, but be prepared to produce your copies of your money order and note to the OC.You MAY have to show up in Court if your request for dismissal isn't granted. DO NOT let the Court date slide by without either appearing with your proof of payment, ( even if the money order isn't deposited it IS proof of payment.)

BTW "Your Greatness" is what my great grandchildren call me!!

By recent I mean in the last 6 months or so.

Yes, I can pay it, but I don't think I still have the origional bills, but the lawsuit gives the account numbers and dos, can I just add that as a notation with the money order?


Final question, how do y'all trace the MO to know when it has been cashed?

BTW: Grandpa's are always great!

OK, I paid these bills, got my green card and the reciepts and a thank you from the hospital. Then I got a letter in the mail from the CA saying "Hey, you paid some, what about this?". At first I thought they were wanting to collect on another account, so I pushed it aside for a moment. However, as I started looking at it, I noticed that they listed the same acct #, patient, and DOS as one of the bills I paid off.

so like this...

origional
123456, DS, 2/4/05, $50

updated after payment of the $50
123456, DS, 2/4/05, $357

WHAT????

Can they do this? Can they change the amount due half way through the suit? AFter the origional request has already been paid?

Also, I went to the court to request a dismissal due to the fact that they were paid, but the sec said that I would have to talk to the CA and ask them to dismiss it...Yea, right, I am sure that they will get right on that.

Is there anything I need to take to court with me (Tuesday, 1/30) besides my reciepts and letters from the court and the CA? Anything to prevent them from collecting their fees, since it is paid off now??

Thanks again.
tobi

You can take with you your evidence and have a prepared motion to file to sue the CA for damages for continuing a lawsuit that has no "cause of action". If the OC was named in the lawsuit and the CA was notified that the OC had receipted the account in full, then they have no "standing" to pursue the case and anything they do after their notification from you and the OC is a violation of the FDCPA and State Court rules.

OK, I understand, only one more question please (sorry to be a pain in the heiney)

Included in the information sent to me is a paper that I signed at the hospital, this is the paragraph that is giving me concern right now:

"I hereby guarantee payment in full of the patient's account in accordance with the financial arrangements made at the time of discharge or, if none are so made, then payment shall be made in full within 30 days of discharge. If any amount due for the service rendered becomes deliquent and the debt is assigened to a third party for collection, it is understood that reasonable court coses, attorney's fees and other resasonable costs of collection may be added to the amount due on the acount."

Does this override HIPPA? Since the account was not paid before court filings, do I still have to pay the attorney's fees? Mostly, what I want is to avoid another judgement on my report.

IF the CA lawyer produces THIS signed agreement, AND a FULL assignment from the hospital transferring ALL their rights to the account, then YES, you may have to pay the actual "reasonable" Court costs, which would include any actual filing fees. However, since the hospital already accepted your payment in full, the CA lawyer would have to PROVE his actual costs of collecting a $50. debt were so excessive.

You MIGHT at MOST have to pay any actual filing fee, IF they produce proof that the fee was incurred specifically for YOUR case, and not as part of a "general" bulk filing fee, and that they are NOT including their costs of any appearances subsequent to their notification from the hospital that the account was paid.

In addition, you should notify the hospital of what has occurred, in writing, as the CA's actions MAY have violated their contract with the hospital.

In addition, you should advise the Hospital that you MAY take action against them AND the CA for any damages incurred by the illegal tactics of their agent, ( name of CA ) in pursuing a fraudulent claim and violating your privacy rights.

well, I went, I was very nice and calm, their atty was very nice and calm, the CA rep was very rude and angry...go figure! She was angry that I "went around her and paid someone else", she claimed that I owed her the money, not the hospital, I should have paid her and she would have paid the hosp, I told her that I just saved her the time a writing the check..she didn't like that.

Anyway, they stick to the fact that what they added to the bill was the collection costs, the atty admitted that they shouldn't put it to look like it is on my DS bill for that DOS. They did agree to give me 2 weeks to pay the collection costs, that is great because I have that much time to really check this out more.

Thanks for your help WhyChat.