Hello, all.

I have been looking over my credit reports and have a few medical collections on them, all are unpaid.

Two are recent and two are six years old.

I know I have read in here that you should include all your medical accounts when you begin to dispute BEFORE you do anything else on your credit reports. (I have opted out and have requested deletion of erroneous personal info.)

The two recent accounts I can pay...I can not in any way, shape or form afford the older hospital bills at this time. Should I just begin the HIPAA process on the accounts I can afford to pay and ignore the others for now? They are scheduled to fall off in 12/10.

Also, I am in Florida, where the SOL on written contracts is 4 years and the SOL on open contracts is 5 years. (I'm pretty sure I have that right.) This means I can not be sued, correct? I am not exactly sure if a hospital bill falls under these SOLs, and I can't find that exact info anywhere. The hospital in question is a "non-profit, community hospital."

Thanks for any insight.

Thank you, WhyChat. I most certainly did get those backwards! Hmmmph!

I will send out those letters as soon as I get my replies from my address disputes. I'm hoping it will be soon.

I do have another issue with a wrong social being reported on EX that I have not disputed yet because i have some concerns. Could one of the experts here take a look at my thread from the main credit forum and offer any opinion?

http://creditboards.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=408650

I am really afraid that this may land me in hot water for loan fraud.

OK, I just called Mazda and they were unable to find the account using my real social, but they DID find it by my first and last name...so I think my hunch was correct.

However, they said since the account was paid and closed in '05 they could not access any info or files on the account to see what ss and dob was associated with it. I suppose my next step should be to just dispute it with EX, yes?

Thanks again. I will get my reports together and star a new thread with the details of my medical accounts soon. (Unless you'd rather me add them to this thread?)

There are several lates on that Mazda account. There was a string of lates in a row in 2003, one in '04 and one in '05. I will look for that calculator you mentioned. The one good thing about my reports (and there is not much) is that all of my oldest accounts (from the '90s) are all good, although all are closed now. It wasn't until my marriage imploded (2003 until the divorce in 2007) that my credit tanked.

OK, address deletions are done.

One quick question about opting out. I opted out from the credit bureas but saw another link on the WhyChat page about opting out from all creditors. It was a much more involved process than what I did. Is the opting out from the credit bureaus suffucient? YES (I had gotten the optoutprescreen link from the credit forum.)

Anyway, here's what's reporting on my CR's:

TU:

Allied Collection Services #XXXXXX
Their address
Balance: $81
Date updated: 5/2008
Orig. amount: $80
Orig. creditor: US Healthworks (I have no idea who this is)
Past due: $81
Pay status: Collection account
Account type: open account
Responsibility: Individual account
Loan type: Collection agency/attorney
Remarks: Placed for collection
Date placed for collection: 3/2008
estimated date of removal: 2/2015

EX:
Same as above, plus...

Focus Financial
their address
Acct.: XXXXXXX
Original Creditor: Local hospital #1
Date opened: Oct. 2004
Reported since: Dec. 2003
Date of status: Dec. 2003
Last reported: Jan. 2005
Type: Collection
Terms: NA
Monthly payment: NA
Responsibility: Individual
Credit limit or original amount: $1,439
High balance: NA
Recent balance: $1,439 as of Jan. 2005
Status: Collection account
Scheduled to stay on record until Jun. 2010

Focus Financial
address
Date opened: Dec. 2007
Reported since: April 2008
Date of status: April 2008
Last reported: April 2008
Type: Collection
Terms: 1 month
Monthly payment: NA
Resp: Individual
Credit limit or original amount: $100
High balance: NA
Recent balance: $100 as of April 2008
Scheduled to stay on until May 2014
Orig. Creditor -- local hospital #2

And finally EQ:

PB Credit Adjustment (This is the SAME company as Focus Financial above)
address
Collection reported: 1/2005; Assigned 10/2004; Client --Local hospital #1; Amount: $1,439; Status as of 1/2005-- unpaid; DOFD -- 12/2003; Balance as of 1/2005-- $1,439; Individual account; Account number-- XXXXXXXXX (numer is listed in full)

PB Credit Adj.
address
Collection reported: 9/2004; Assigned 5/2004; Client -- local hosp. #1; Amount $7,928; DOFD 12/2003; Status-- unpaid, etc.

Sorry if this is overkill. I just don't want to make any errors. I have to be honest, I'm terrified of that last bill. I KNOW it is a valid bill but there is no way I can pay it. I read in another thread (i've been reading this forum a lot lately) that the courts do not accept SOL as an affirmative defense when it is a hospital bill because they receive federal $. I can't afford a judgment -- my only saving grace is that in Florida my wages can't be garnished because I'm Head of household. If you have not been sued you are not going to this is too old

The CA that has that and the other large bill is local and appears to be an assignee of all the local hospitals.

I apologize for freaking out about this. I'm just very afraid of those "unintended consequences" by stirring this one up. (and the $1,400 one, actually). I wish I could pay them....I would. I just can't.

Should i just suck it up and send the pre-hipaa letters to the CRAs for all of these?
LOL, Yes, just suck it up and send the pre-hipaa dispute out, When I started credit repair, I had 35K in medical collections, all over 1 hospital stay. I was confused and freaking out too. The whole hospital stay was only 35K and I had insurance. They have all been gone for a very long time and I would say, 75% came off with the PRE-HIPAA Dispute.

Just dispute ALL medical accounts with the initial dispute letter, you may find that you won't have to pay even the fairly recent ones. There is NO obligation to pay even if the accounts are verified.
Make sure you delete old addresses when possible.

http://whychat.5u.com/hipaadisp.html make sure you follow the instructions even if they seem a little odd, personalized stationary, teal or lilac font, hand addresses envelop and CM NO RR.
You may list all accounts in one letter.

Thanks again, Whychat, for your patience and assistance.

Ah, thank you! And thank you for not thinking I'm a total baby for being nervous about this! I had insurance, too...you wouldn't believe me if I told you my sob story as to why they remain unpaid. We all have a sob story, though, don't we?

So each CRA gets one letter with all accounts that the CRA is reporting listed in said letter, right? I have my yellow lined legal paper and purple pen. So far so good, yes? (I apparantly need a lot of hand-holding!)

If you are handwriting your dispute, you can use a regular pen. The automatic word recognition programs can not process handwritten letters especially on a blue lined background. It is only if you are doing it on your computer that font colors matter, as the "reading" programs CAN read any computer font unless it is in a blue toned font printed on a background that has the same colors. There is a nice "cloud" background paper available at most office supply stores that seems to work very well with teal or purple italic font.( tested with a similar program) Make sure the envelope is clearly hand addressed printed in black as the PO also uses automated recognition software.

Also make sure that in each letter to each CRA that the medical accounts ONLY are being disputed and that the account data is exactly as shown on THAT CRA report.

Any suggestions about what to do with the account that has just appeared on EX?

Send the reporting CA the medical DV,
http://whychat.5u.com/ltrcavalhipaa.html
if that account was not deleted from TU you can use that letter in the follow up to TU
http://whychat.5u.com/ltrcavalhipaa.html#DISPUTE
and do a new dispute to Ex with the same follow up letter ( edited).
I have disputed this unknown medical account with the reporting Collection Agent,( copy enclosed with proof of their receipt),and have had no valid response.

Thank you, WhyChat. I have to admit I'm starting to feel a little dumb because I'm confused.

Just to clarify, I am going to send the medical DV to the CA and reference only the account as it's being reported on EX and NOT TU at this point because TU is still investigating it? And when i get the full response back from TU for this account, will I be sending them another medical DV about this account?

Does it matter that the same CA has two other accounts of mine that are currently under investigation with the CRAs? My understanding is that I will be waiting for the full results from all 3 CRAs BEFORE i send them the med. DVs refercing the other accounts? Is this correct?

My apologies for seeming so thick. I hope my questions were clear.

OK, so I finally have all my results back from the CRAs.

TU deleted the one account with Allied. There are currently NO medical accounts on TU.

EQ verified in less than a week! Both Focus Fin. accounts verified.

EX took the whole 30+ days and deleted only the Allied account. Verified the Focus Fin.

However, all three accounts from this CA are now reporting on BOTH EX and EQ -- where previously only two of the three were reporting on each.

I believe the next step is to send out the medical DV to this rotten CA? I can only afford to pay the account that is $100. I am also 99.99% certain they do have an existing relationship with both hospitals.

Just send it, right? And include all accounts that are currently reporting? (Even if they were not included on my prior pre-HIPAA dispute?) I'm just a little confused since the CA updated both reports to include all three accounts.

Not to mention, as soon as I disputed, EQ dropped a few of my old, closed accounts that were reporting as positive. Those companies are hateful.

I have opted out.

I will send the DV to the CA...and then when I get the green card back i send the follow-up dispute to EX and EQ, yes? Yes

As far as the old addresses, I have been at my current location for 11+ years. All of my negative TLs are tied to this address only. I chose NOT to dispute my last address, as that is the address that is tied to all of my GOOD TLs. I thought that would be shooting myself in the foot. I hope that was the right decision. (I disputed a few other old addresses, some were deleted, some were not. None were tied to negative TLs.)

BTW, WhyChat, as a gesture of thanks for the one deletion i did get so far, I brought a case of cat food to my local no-kill shelter. (I'm a big animal lover as well, with SIX pets at home -- all adoptions or formerly homeless/neglected.)

Wow! That has to be a record...green card back in less than 48 hours!

I have typed up the follow-up dispute to the CRAs and have included a copy of the green card (front and back...is that right?) as well as a copy of the medical DV that was sent to the CA in each envelope (one for EX and one for EQ). Am I doing this properly? I'm not missing anything, right?

OK, so to give a quick recap...I sent the medical DV to the CA that has all three medical accounts (from two separate hospitals) on Tuesday. I got the green card back Thursday. I sent the follow-up dispute to EX and EQ on Friday. Today (Saturday) I got a letter in the mail from the CA with info on ONE account (the $100 one that is the most recent.) They sent me a two-page printout, but pages one and two are identical. Stapled to this printout is a little coupon that says to remit payment to them, their address, the name of the hospital, and "this is an attempt to collect a debt" notice and the amount $100 is HANDWRITTEN on a blank line.

They did not include anything about the other accounts, but as they are six years old, I imagine they would need more time to dig them up?

Anyway, here's what the printout says:

It has all of my correct info, my son's name, age, my social, etc. Date of service 8/25/07. date of bill 8/29/07.

Detail of Current charges, payments and adjustments/ER Charge Level 2

Total amt. $491 Est. Coverage Ins. No. 1 $491

Balance Forward: $0.00

Summary of Current Charges: Total amt. $491 Est. Coverage Ins. No. 1 $491

Total of Current Charges: Total amt. $491 Est. Coverage Ins. No. 1 $491

TOTALS: $491 $491

Pay This Amount: $0.00


I may very well owe a $100 co-pay for this visit, although this bill does not indicate this, does it? My son had been bitten in the face by the neighbor's dog and they said they'd pay it, but I know they didn't as their house went into forclosure and I did not pursue it, and the account had already gone to collections.

So what do I do regarding this info?

And should I just wait to see if they send me anything regarding the accounts they have from the other OC? My disputes are already out to EX and EQ.