I am going to sound like the biggest newb dork when I ask this question but I am off to the post office tomorrow and it is better to be a dork on message boards than face to face!

I have written the "Pre HIPAA Dispute" letters based on the great advice from whychat. Tomorrow, I will goto the post office to send them certified mail. I have NEVER sent anything certified mail before. In the letter there is a line "I am sending this dispute certified mail # xxxx to make sure you receive it." What do I put in the XXXX fields? I wont know what these numbers are until I get to the post office.

Sorry for the dumb question!

Thanks... Bubba

When you go to the post office there will be a sticker that say certified mail on it. you will have to fill it out and the post man will place it on your mail. At the bottom of that sticker is a bar code with a set of numbers below it, those numbers are what you will write in CMRR #

While you are at the post office, if you have several more letters (Which likely you will) that will need to be sent Certified Mail with Return Receipt, ask them for a stack of both the green cards for the Return Receipt and the slips for the Certified Mail.

It is not too hard to fill these out properly and get them ready to go prior to going to the post office.

What I've been doing with my stacks - after writing out the letter, and including the Certified Mail Number, I address the envelope, and place the Certified Mail sticker on it. Then I prep the green card and paperclip the envelope, green card, and Certified Mail slip all together.

Print the letter when it's ready to go out sign it, make a copy, then retain the copy and mail the original. Seal the envelope, place the green return receipt card, and then go to the post office and pay for the CMRR and postage all at once, postage is usually less than the 41cents since the letter is so lightweight.

They endorse the slip for Certified mail, I retain that with the copy in my binder for my copies (which you may need at the end of the HIPPA program) and then when the green card comes back with their signature on it I attach that with the Certified Mail slip, and the copy of the letter with a paperclip in my binder.

I have everything in my binder, works well for me as far as keeping everything organized.

Send initial disputes to the CRA's by certified mail ONLY, without the "return receipt".

Thanks all for the great responses... and going easy on me!