i know what this is for, just based on my report and the information they gave me. if i call the hospital and arrange for them to pull it back from collections if they'll delete, is that a valid way to go about this rather than going thru the entire hipaa process? i'm looking to buy a home and i can't afford to wait the 2-3 months that process might take...

OK, she said she'd "prefer" if i pay it thru them.

the amounts match up...can i just send the hipaa letter to the hospital with a payment rather than go thru the entire process?

How old is this account??

Did the hospital bill you for it??

If you are looking to buy a home, you need to follow at least the FIRST part of the HIPAA letter program, which will only take 30 days.

Opt out
http://whychat.5u.com/OPTOUTINST.HTML
Delete old addresses, if possible, if you have moved within the past 5-7 years.

Send each CRA where the account is reporting this
http://whychat.5u.com/hipaadisp.html

The only thing you MIGHT accomplish with your "short cut" idea is to get a "paid" collection on your reports which is almost as bad as an unpaid one for "scoring".

If you receive full account data from the reporting CA in response to your dispute to the CRA, then you can pay the hospital directly with the HIPAA letter insert "a".
http://whychat.5u.com/hipltr.html

i must be misunderstanding the second letter then...that's what i was referring to with the whole short cut idea. send payment with the second hipaa letter, the hospital then pulls it back from the CA...isn't that the point?

also, i've got another unpaid medical that's in collections but not reporting...how do i pay that while making sure it doesn't pop up later like this one did?

How old is THIS one??

I really need to know how old these accounts are before I can properly respond.

date of service on the one that just showed up was late 07 (not sure the exact date but i believe it was september 07), said it went to collections feb 08 but i never received anything from the CA and it just showed up on my reports today, so i had no idea it wasn't paid. i sent out the initial hipaa letter this afternoon, per your earlier advice in this thread...

the other one was DOS aug 16 05, i dont know what date it went to collections or if it is just in the hospital's "collection" department. i do know the hospital said they could see it in their system and that it was marked as unpaid, so i'm guessing this means i can pay them?

now i'm thoroughly worried...just looked at the website of the CA, says they report to all three CRAs. i'm worried now that this will eventually show up on the other two (right now it's only on EQ)...

damnit, i love how these people don't even send me a notice that i owe them anything and then all of a sudden just appear out of nowhere, right when i'm getting ready to buy a house...

i had a cell phone collection that i resolved by calling the OC (sprint) and having them sign a PFD stating that they would pull the account back from collections and direct the CA to delete all trade lines from my reports relating to that account. it was removed from my reports within a matter of a few days...

i know medicals are different, but is there a specific reason why i can't do that here (i.e. negotiate this out directly with the hospital)?

You can do as you wish, if you have confirmed that the '05 one is still in the hospital system and is the same amount as reporting, you can try paying them, BUT remember that they DID NOT BILL YOU!! It may be, and probably is, just like the more recent '07 one a billing error of a left over discounted amount that SHOULD have been wiped off your records in the hospital's accounts receivables. If these are both from the same hospital, it is more than likely that the REPORTING CA has NO relationship to the hospital and they would have no way of effecting a deletion of THAT CA's entry on your reports.

ok, i think i've set forth some confusion here so let me start over from the beginning...

these are both from the days back when i had no medical insurance (wasn't working), but are from two different hospitals.

1) date of service august 16 2005 - two parts: hospital charge for $110, physician charge for $202. there was a collection on my reports for the $202 that i got removed by using the hipaa process about a month ago (my thread on that is still near the top of the forum), it fell off after just the initial dispute letter. the hospital charge ($110) is the one that i believe is still in the hospital system, it is not reporting on any of my reports.

2) date of service sept 4 2007 - hospital charge $118.19. i actually did have insurance for this one, the $118 was a part of my co-pay or something to that effect. this is the one that just popped up on my EQ report yesterday, but not yet on TU or EX. also, the collection agency listed has NOT sent me any bills or dunning letters, at least not that i've seen. i sent the initial hipaa letter to EQ yesterday on this one, per your advice. i had called the hospital yesterday to get the hospital's billing account number, date of service and amount - she mentioned that it was now with berks credit (same CA that's listed on my report).

that's the whole story...where do i go from here (keeping in mind i want to get this resolved as quickly as possible)? i can easily afford to pay both in full if i need to...

The problem is NOT "paying" the problem is to get a DELETION, or to at least prevent any new reporting.

You MAY or MAY NOT actually owe something to the hospitals, THAT IS NOT THE ISSUE!!

The fact that the hospital records show that the "2007" account is "with" Berk Credit, the same one that is reporting is beside the point.
This is most likely a DISCOUNTED balance from a "cash" payment that the hospitals are required to write off but usually do not, they may bill you, or not, or it may be ( mistakenly or not) kept on their books and turned over to a CA.

If you send the initial dispute to any CRA that is reporting, and obtain FROM THE REPORTING CA an accurate account statement that matches your records, you can THEN pay the hospital with the HIPAA letter insert "a".

If a CA is NOT reporting, and has NOT contacted you, then there is NOTHING you can do.

If the CA HAS contacted you by mail or phone , but is NOT yet reporting, you can send them this;
Your Name
123 Your Street Address
Your City, ST 01234

ABC Collections
123 NotOnYourLife Ave
Chicago, IL
Date: _________ CMRR#____________
Re: Acct # XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX
To Whom It May Concern:

This letter is being sent to you in response to your attached letter.

If you have nothing in writing use the phrase "recent communication,

This is not a refusal to pay, but a notice that your claim is disputed.

Under the Fair Debt Collections Practices Act (FDCPA), I have the right to request validation of the debt you say I owe you. I am requesting proof that I am indeed the party you are asking to pay this debt, and there is some contractual obligation which is binding on me to pay this debt.

Please attach copies of:

Agreement with your client that grants you the authority to collect on this alleged debt,or proof of acquisition by purchase or assignment.
Agreement that bears the signature of the alleged debtor wherein he or she agreed to pay the creditor and as this is a medical account a copy of any HIPAA authorization.

Please also be advised that this letter is not only a formal dispute, but a request that you cease and desist any and all collection activities, including reporting of; or verifying of this account on my credit reports.

Your receipt of this letter will be considered as having granted consent to the taping of any and all telephone calls to me at my home or business by you or your agents or assigns

I require compliance with the terms and conditions of this letter within 30 days. or a complete withdrawal, in writing, of any claim.
In the event of noncompliance, I reserve the right to file charges and/or complaints with appropriate County, State & Federal authorities ,the BBB and State Bar associations for violations of the FDCPA, FCRA, and Federal and State statutes on fraudulent extortion and illegal collection activities on any account that may be time-barred as well as being subject to the HIPAA and (name of your State) medical privacy rules.

I also hereby reserve my right to take private civil action against you to recover damages.

Sincerely,

Your Name(PRINT OR TYPE DO NOT SIGN)

ok - so either the CA is going to send me something back or it will fall off after the initial letter...is that correct?

Not quite,
If it is on all 3 reports, one report may delete it with the initial letter and the other 2 may "verify" without your actually getting a response directly from the reporting CA, in which case it means that it is probably NOT a valid claim and you need to send the medical DV.
http://whychat.5u.com/ltrcavalhipaa.html
and then send the follow up letter to the CRA

Please be aware that all CA's lie like a rug, and if you do as another poster did and pay the CA with a "verbal" agreement that they will delete, even though in her case one of the CRA's deleted with the initial letter, you will wind up like she did posting her story about how she tried it "her way" and how to NOW get a deletion, ( which of course she can not, as she has lost all her leverage by paying an account that was NOT valid to a CA)

http://creditboards.com/forums/index.php?s...p;#entry3611214

ok, it appears this one has been verified - my monitoring service no longer says "customer dispute, reinvestigation in progress"

i still haven't received anything in the mail yet. now what? am i looking for something from the CA or something from the CRA that tells me where to go with the next step in the process?

I do not wish to disparage "monitoring services" but they really are not very useful when it comes to credit repair. See if you can get an update from the CRA(s) that you sent the dispute letter to. Try the on line dispute service from each CRA, if the account you disputed is no longer there it has been deleted, if it shows the same as it was, then wait until you get a response from the CRA and send the reporting CA the follow up medical DV as suggested.

see, this is where i get confused. assuming it comes back as verified and they give me the name of the original doctor and date of service - who am i expecting this information from, the CRA or the CA? if i get that information, i then send the follow up letter to the original provider along with payment, right? this nets a deletion?

The simplest thing for you to do is to wait and see what you receive and from whom and THEN post the results on this thread.

IF you get a FULL statement of account from the REPORTING CA, and it MATCHES your own records of billing from the OC, then yes, you pay the OC with the HIPAA letter insert "a".

I sincerely doubt that this will occur given the information in your posts about the dates of service and the PAID co-pays.

Most likely, you will either receive a deletion from the CRA's or a "verified" from them WITHOUT any verifiable proof of the account from the reporting CA. This is when you would send the reporting CA the medical DV;

http://whychat.5u.com/ltrcavalhipaa.html
and then send the follow up letter to the CRA

got the results today - here's what it is...

We have researched the collection account. The results are: Equifax verified that this item belongs to you. Additional information has been provided from the original source regarding this item. If you have additional questions about this item please contact: (CA listed here).

It then goes on to list the date it was reported, assigned, the original client (which is the hospital, I already knew this), the amount, the collection agency account number

i figured this was going to happen, given that the hospital told me when i called them who it was with. now what? i pay the hospital directly? do i need to call the CA and get any information?

i need to get this done ASAP, i'm bidding on a house as we speak...this needs to go away before i apply for the mortgage (my score was above the minimum 620 for FHA til this popped up, now it isn't).

i should note - i just looked over my old insurance records, the amount matches up with what it says i am liable for out of pocket.

WhyChat already gave you the next step if that happened.



Be mindful that a mortgage pull makes ALL CA's come out of the woodwork. Time and time again this has been discussed on the boards. How do you suppose CRA's make so much money? They share your information when you start house shopping. That's why it's always good to do a mortgage pull MANY months before you start house hunting.

Stick to the program as WhyChat describes. There are no shortcuts.

ETA: For goodness sakes...do NOT get on the phone with the CA! This is the worst thing you can do. Everything must be done in writing. CA's lie 100% of the time.

i know he did, i asked because i guess i'm still confused on the whole process. EQ replied with everything in writing that told me who the OC was and the amount, and it matched. i never did get an answer to my question as to whether i was waiting for that from the CRA or the CA, which is why i asked.

what confuses me is why i can't just pay the hospital right now to get it over with, and have them pull it back from the CA. i don't really understand that part...

I've seen this happen before. It appears you feel your way will work better and you want permission to do it that way, with assurance it will work in your favor.

Re-read the thread. Your answers and instructions are already there.

that is not at all the case - but thanks for the kind words.

what i really want is someone to explain to me why i can't just pay the hospital now and have them pull it back from the CA. this is what i would do if the CA sent me verification, right? so why can't i just do it now to get it over with?

i am still confused on the whole process. i have called the hospital...they told me the account is with this collection agency. i am confused as to how it will hurt me if i just pay them.

i have faith in everyone at this board, you have all helped me so much over the past year...but i'm just still confused on this medical process and how it works.

Sorry if I sounded short with you. I wasn't trying to be harsh...I was just observing the issue from a different perspective.

I am guilty of not understanding something that WhyChat said and thinking it made sense to do it another way...and I got burned! It's hard to convince people that WhyChat has a reason for everything. You may not even need to understand it...just trust the info.

I imagine in the best of circumstances, the OC will forward the payment to the CA - and at that point, NO ONE will have any obligation to correct the negative entries because the negative entries will STILL remain. It will be MUCH harder for you in the end. OC's and CA's have tried to do it even with the carefully-worded letters attached to the payment but it was the carefully-worded letters that WhyChat provides that got it turned back around again. You have to follow the steps exactly with no shortcuts.

The reasons why you should not pay the OC directly with insert "a" is explained in this thread
http://creditboards.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=387599
The explanation your are looking for starts on post #6 and 4. (fits your situation)

If the CA and the OC were in communicating, If the CA was collecting on behalf of the OC or your account was still in the assigned state
than you would have received FULL verification from the CA/OC, this would have come in separate correspondences from the CA/OC, because by law this information can't be transmitted through the CRAs. Full Verification is all the information you requested in the Pre-HIPPPA dispute with the CRAs, if your get that, than you pay the OC with insert "a" if you don't than you do this http://whychat.5u.com/ltrcavalhipaa.html

What you received was the typical CA verification, where the CA simply just verified your name, addresses and SS# (if they have it)
Dragonflyer is correct , Not sure about this Why chat guy he not only helped me clear both mine and my DH's CR from a "few" bogus Medical Collections. He also pointed me down a path that lead to my former insurance company coughing up 17k in benefits that had been previosly denied. If you pay the OC than you will still have the collection on your CR, trust the process!
This is the next step
http://whychat.5u.com/ltrcavalhipaa.html

alright, the medical dv went out monday and was received tuesday (the CA is only about 30 miles from here).

now what? how long do i give the CA to send me full validation before sending the follow-up to the CRA? or do i send it right now?

If you have the green card back, you can send the follow up dispute now.

ok, i sent the followup cra dispute last week and apparently it got lost in the mail. i havent received the green card back, and when i checked the certified number on the receipt on the usps website, it tells me there's no record of it.

now what? send it again? does this mean i'm gonna have to pay another $6 to send it certified a second time even though it's not my fault they lost it?

Take your receipt to the post office, if the item was lost, won't they refund you?

no idea, never had a CMRR lost before...

Take your receipt to the Post Office. They can give the answers as to what happened to it and find a way to resolve it.

ok, just got the results of the second dispute from EQ - same exact piece of paper i got the first time, with a new date on it. still nothing from the CA.


now what?

anyone??

I went back over all your original posts.
In one of them you said that the amount being reported by the CA is the same as what is on your EOMB as your unpaid share of the bill.

You also said you were "bidding" on a house, did that go through??

If you need to get this account off your reports for a closing, then pay it to the OC with the HIPAA letter insert "a" include a copy of your EOMB to verify the amount you are paying.

http://whychat.5u.com/hipltr.html

Make sure you pay by money order with the endorsement( for deposit only) and make a copy of the money order front and back, on the front, in the "for" area put your patient ID # and refer to the EOMB # if you don't have those #'s put in your name, the date of service and your SS #.

This way you can prove to your mortgage closing agent that the account was paid.

i ended up not getting the house i was making an offer on, so no that hasn't gone thru yet. i do still need to make sure i take care of this, as it has brought my EQ score down below the magic 620 number (i was at 623 prior to this popping up, now i'm at 607). i believe my EX score is probably above 620 so i should still be above 620 mid score (TU is up near 650), but i can't be sure because i can't pull EX anymore obviously...

can i go to the billing office in the hospital to do this, or should i mail it? if i'm dropping off the money order, should i still take a copy of the letter as well? the hospital is nearby...

You need to mail it CMRR so that you have proof of their receipt of the LETTER as well as the money order. Otherwise you do not have a paper trail to get a deletion.

another interesting twist to this story, that i hadn't thought of - the hospital this service was at is still in existence, but has merged with another hospital and is now owned/operated by a different company.

does this change how i should be attacking this? i haven't paid it yet...

anyone? i want to send this out tomorrow if nothing changes...

also, i don't have the account number - should i be calling the hospital to make sure they even still have this in their records and get the account number for the remittance letter?

If you are unable to get the account number from the hospital or from old records, submit the payment with the patient name, SSN and date of service in the memo section.

Send it to whomever now owns the hospital at their existing address. I am guessing it is all through the previous address but with a different name attached to that address.

I haven't gone over your earlier posts, have you opted out??
http://whychat.5u.com/OPTOUTINST.HTML
Have you deleted old addresses??
Have you sent the CRA's where it is reporting the dispute letter??
http://whychat.5u.com/hipaadisp.html
If you have NOT done any of that then you are "jumping the gun" by paying the OC with the HIPAA letter.
My earlier advice to go ahead and pay was because you said you were closing on a house.

I have sent the initial letter to the CRA that it's reporting on (Equifax) - came back verified, with nothing from the CA.

Sent the follow-up dispute letter to the CA - no response.

Sent the follow-up to the CRA with the dispute letter to CA and proof of receipt with no response - came back verified, again with nothing from the CA. Same exact single sheet of paper from Equifax that I got the first time.

How many times am I supposed to go through this song and dance if they're just going to keep sending me the same thing over and over again? I have yet to receive ANYTHING from the CA...not even so much as a bill.

OK, is this JUST reporting to Eq.?? if so then send this;

http://whychat.5u.com/hipaaftccomp.html

make sure that in your complaint you stress that this unknown medical account is ONLY reporting to Eq. and that you have sent a proper dispute, sent a fillow up dispute after trying to contact the reporting CA ( give their name) and had NO legitimate response from Eq.

Make sure you print up the dispute BEFORE clicking "submit" and include a copy with your additional dispute letter to Eq.
Also make sure that the account IS actually still on your Eq. report and that you are not just looking at your original report.

If you wish, you can call Eq. ask for an account manager and explain the problem, state that you are preparing a complaint to the FTC against them and wish to make sure that they are aware of the problem as they have only sent you automated resplies to your disputes.

OK...what's my goal here? Where is this taking me?

What is my next step after this point?

This should get you a deletion from the Eq. report, which should get your Eq. score up. Paying the OC is USELESS as there is NO WAY that a payment to them could elicit a deletion, since the CA has not responded to ANYTHING.

If you were getting ready to CLOSE and this was the ONLY thing in your way, then I would tell you to pay the OC with the HIPAA letter and use the proof of payment to get your mortgage closed, but that is ONLY if your title Co. required it. As it is, your concern is to get your score up, and paying the OC will not have that effect.

alright, so i print a copy of the ftc complaint and include that in my letter to EQ...do i actually follow thru with submitting the complaint then, or do i wait til i hear back from EQ before doing that?

Submit the complaint to the FTC

alright then, i will take care of all of this tomorrow (ftc complaint and a new letter out to equifax, and i think i will indeed give them a call as well).

i'm sure i'll be back for more help at some point in this process, but thanks all for your help so far...

another quickie - i'm filling out the form as we speak...i want to make sure i'm doing this right...

the first question looks like i should be naming the reporting CA, right?

the second one should be naming equifax? or should that be the reporting CA as well?

and for the last one, what exactly am i specifying that they did to violate hipaa?

---

Who is the patient, provider or reporter who is identified in the information you believe was impermissibly disclosed?

Who (e.g., provider, patient safety organization, other person) do you believe disclosed patient safety work product in violation of patient safety confidentiality?

---

Describe briefly what happened. How and why do you believe a person or organization impermissibly disclosed patient safety work product? Please be as specific as possible. Why do you believe the information disclosed is patient safety work product? (Attach additional pages as needed)

Usually when Why Chat suggest the FTC it is against the CRA for failure to investigate a consumer dispute under FCRA.

in this case it seems it is something different - the link he directed me to is for a hipaa complaint, not fcra.