Little background first...

My child had a medical procedure done a while back which I paid my portion up front. Then I started getting bills for another amount that was unpaid by the insurance carrier. I fought it and thought I had won but then a collection on my CR showed up on TU and EX but not EQ. No letters from CA just a collection on my CR, which seemed strange to me because I NEVER give out my SS# to Dr's offices or anyone for that matter unless it is for employment or tax purposes.

Long story short, I let it fester for a while and then started Whychat's HIPPA letters. I sent out the one to the OC with payment attached which they deposited and sent me back this letter...

May 12, 2008

Xxx Xxxxx
### Any St
Any Town, CA 90000

Dear Mr. Xxxxxx,

Thank you for your payment of $###.##. This has been applied to Xxxxx's account.

Along with your payment you also sent a letter requesting that we rescind all acount information

furnished to CA and require them to purge their records of all reference to this account.

We provide our collection agencies on the information needed to pursue payment for the account. We do not

give our collection agencies information regarding treatment or diagnoses. This is in compliance with

HIPAA regulations.

We will report payment to CA, but will not request that information be rescinded. AC is a business

partner and has agreed to abide by HIPAA regulations.

Sincerely,

Xxx Xxxxx, CHFP, RHIA
Manager Patient Financial Services
Xxxx Children's Hospital
#### Hospital Way
Any Town, CA 90000

Cc: Xxx Xxxxx, Compliance Officer
Xxx Xxxxx, Director Revenue Cycle

I started to type up normal letters of dispute but after reading a few threads in the Med Billing section of CB I thought better of it and wanted to get some input.

Since the OC obviously is refusing to have the collection removed and is ignoring HIPAA what would be the most logical next step, the letter to the CRA or HIPAA complaint about the OC?

This is literally the last thing on my CR that is negative in the last 5 years and took me down over 100 points. Any suggestions or help would be appreciated. Thanks.

I am sorry you didn't follow the FULL HIPAA procedure.
Opt out, delete old addresses if you have moved.

SEND THE CRA'S THE MEDICAL DISPUTE LETTER!!!!
http://whychat.5u.com/hipaadisp.html

You missed the MOST essential part of the program, i.e. verifying that the reporting CA has ANY relationship to the OC and that the account is a REAL "left over" bill and not a written off or discount balance that some data miner picked up from the "garbage" and sold to a garbage CA .

Send it now, follow the directions.
http://whychat.5u.com/hipaadisp.html

Actually I followed it. I sent the validation letter in first and did not receive a response. Then I got the response noted above from the OC, I forgot to mention that. They obviously have a relationship. I'll send the CRA's the medical dispute letter today. I didn't Opt Out yet. I'll have to read your page again. It wasn't real clear how to do that the first time I read it. Then again I may have been not reading it accurately because my mind isn't in the right state when it comes to this stuff. I just get super frustrated with this crap system that is kept secret like a cult.

Thanks again for the help.

Oh crap, I see what I did wrong. I sent the payment to the OC first. Man, I get so frustrated with this stuff. It is almost like a cult it is so secretive. I'll send the Medical Dispute Letter in today. Thanks for all the help.

I do not think there is anything "secretive" about the instructions on the HIPAA letter program:
http://whychat.5u.com/hipltr.html

The TOP paragraph in LARGE LETTERS says:
DISPUTE ANY CA ACCOUNT FIRST WITH THE SPECIAL "MEDICAL"
DISPUTE LETTER

AS THERE MAY BE NO VALID BALANCE DUE

Click on "DISPUTE LETTER" link.

It wasn't a slight on you Why Chat. I appreciate what you are doing. It is the CRA's and their intentional bureaucracy that make things confusing. I am a literal person, a + b = c kind of thing, but dealing with CRA's is like performing surgery with a coffee cup, it just don't make sense.

You are mistaken "sonic".
It is not just the CRA's who are "bungling" it is the whole credit system that is "down the rabbit hole".

From CC Companies that give credit cards and t-shirts to kids, to mortgage Co.'s who created the whole foreclosure mess and Worldwide recession, to venal illegal CA's and JDB's who flout all the laws of ethics and business and shovel their ill gotten gains to overseas financial interests who support (%$#$^^%) illegal activities, there is NOTHING logical or sensible about the whole house of cards.

Whychat, You could have not said it better those words are so true.

but we aren't bitter LOL .... love ya

That was the point I was trying to get across but you said it much more eloquently.

I live in one of the areas that was hit hardest by the housing crisis. There was a time back in, oh say 2005, where about every 3rd house in the area where I live had some sort of "Mortgage Broker" living there. Most were people trying to glam on to the prospects if easy money.

I sit her happy in the fact that most of them had to let their houses go because they left their traditional jobs for the mortgage industry and leveraged the heck out of their house in order to live a lifestyle. I have no lost love for people that thrived off of the ignorance of others in a system that is intentionally confusing.

This is NOT a "political" rant!!

You need to inform yourself about the record of your STATE Legislators, your County and Municipal elected officials and local Judges and PARTICIPATE in the process.

MOST of the really important decisions that affect your life are impacted the MOST by people whom YOU have a choice about electing.

If you are NOT part of the solution, you are part of the problem.