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Hello, First post here. I recently started rebuilding credit in October. I got all three of my reports. Eq clean Ex 9 medical collections Tu 6 medical collections Both from are from one incident in 2011 April in San Diego totaling a hair under 30,000 Anyways, I disputed everything. Experian found them all valid. Transunion deleted them all in early November I got a credit alert from credit karma today, and went to my Transunion account and it is showing Uc med 1 02 San diego Added 12/23/2014 for 1226$ Opened on 11/03/2014 The company listed is Avante for the new collection. The previous 6 was California business bureau Did they re age this? Is it a junk debt buyer? I have already done my opt out and sent in to remove my old addresses according to whychat.

Good read for those with medical collections. http://www.consumerfinance.gov/newsroom/cfpb-spotlights-concerns-with-medical-debt-collection-and-reporting/ http://www.consumerfinance.gov/blog/heres-how-medical-debt-hurts-your-credit-report/ http://www.consumerfinance.gov/blog/consumer-advisory-7-ways-to-keep-medical-debt-in-check/

Good read for those with medical collections. http://www.consumerfinance.gov/newsroom/cfpb-spotlights-concerns-with-medical-debt-collection-and-reporting/ http://www.consumerfinance.gov/blog/heres-how-medical-debt-hurts-your-credit-report/ http://www.consumerfinance.gov/blog/consumer-advisory-7-ways-to-keep-medical-debt-in-check/ Whychat's HIPAA program: http://whychat.5u.com/hipltr.html

Good Evening. First, I'd like to say how thankful I am that I found this site. All this time, I've thought the SOL for Tennessee is 7 years. I have been patiently awaiting January 2015 to file a dispute to have 2 medical accounts removed from my CBR. However, I just found out the SOL is actually 6 years in TN. A few years ago, I disputed them a few years ago with the CA and they never responded. I forgot about them until I recently received copies of my reports. Does anyone advise that I go directly to the EQ and TU website to dispute the accounts or is it imperative that I follow the SOL program instructions on this site? The following accounts are being reported to EQ and TU only (the info is the same on each report). Any response will be greatly appreciated. Date Reported: 03/2013 Date Assigned: 12/2009 Creditor Classification: Medical/Health Care Creditor Name: BMH MEMPHIS Accounts Number: 76XXXX Account Owner: Individual Account. Original Amount Owned: $109 Date of 1 st Delinquency: 06/2009 Balance Date: 03/2013 Balance Owned: $109 Last Payment Date : N/A Status Date: 03/2013 Status: D - Unpaid Comments: Medical Date Reported: 03/2013 Date Assigned: 02/2009 Creditor Classification: Medical/Health Care Creditor Name: BMH MEMPHIS Accounts Number: 72XXXX Account Owner: Individual Account. Original Amount Owned: $530 Date of 1 st Delinquency: 09/2008 Balance Date: 03/2013 Balance Owned: $534 Last Payment Date : 11/01/2010 Status Date: 03/2013 Status: D - Unpaid Comments: Medical

Been away from CB for a long time... but I could once again use some help on something. I moved to Washington state briefly for work during 2012, and during that time my wife experienced a medical episode that required an ER visit. The total bill rang out to around $7,500. I was mailing small payments to the hospital each month (which they agreed to) to pay it off. We didn't have any kind of plan for that sort of bill to pop up suddenly, and at the time, using our emergency fund didn't seem appropriate if we could pay it off over time. However, in the chaos of moving back OUT of Washington state, I forgot a payment, and they instantly forwarded the account to collections. The hospital account was in my wife's name ONLY. I screwed up and didn't deal with it. Few months later... *I* got a collections notice with MY name on it from the same people. I rushed to pull reports, and found they reported a new collections account on TU and EX. Dangit. I called at once and demanded to know what was going on. The rep. stated that because Washington is a community property state, my wife's bills are my bills. However, I tried to be coy with the guy and said that while I know who (my wife's name) is... why was he under the impression she's my wife. He couldn't really answer that. I asked if he had any proof that she's my wife, and he turned it around and asked if I could prove that she isn't. He wasn't very nice, as none of them are... so I basically told the guy that this wasn't my responsibility and he should remove it at once. I also asked why he thinks that I live in Washington, but he couldn't answer that. I maintained my Nevada mailing address, and ALL credit correspondence went to the NV address for the nine months I was in WA, so I thought maybe I could dance around that some more, but he didn't budge much on anything. Few days later both TU and EX report the account as "disputed by consumer..." The account is roughly $5,200 which is the $7,500 original bill minus roughly what we paid. If they've added anything at all, it has been very minimal based on my calculations. My question for the group is... what do you think the best approach is to getting this deleted from my reports? We have the cash to pay them (full balance), but based on the previous experience I fear they are not the kind to delete after payment. I JUST had my old paid/settled baddies from 2007 drop off my reports... I don't want this to linger for 7 more years. Should I hire an attorney? Should I dispute with the credit agencies first? I'm lost on this one. Thanks in advance guys... I appreciate you all.

Hi All! Nice to meet you! I’m new to CB and have been reading up A LOT! I think I have enough basic info to post a fairly (credit) educated post. My main question revolves around the BEST NEXT STEP with tackling my credit woes based on MY scenario. So here it goes. First, here is a break down based on my CR. Charge Offs: Cap One / Open Date: 04/01/2011 / Limit: $300 Cap One / Open Date: 05/01/2008 / Limit: $750 Collections: Calvary Portfolio Services / Date opened: 03/01/2013 /Amount: $425 (Possible a Cap One Account) Progressive MGMT Systems / Date opened: 09/01/2012 /Amount: $163 (Highly Possible a Medical Collection) Progressive MGMT Systems / Date opened: 09/01/2012 /Amount: $342 (Highly Possible a Medical Collection) Progressive MGMT Systems / Date opened: 05/01/2012 /Amount: $229 (Highly Possible a Medical Collection) Progressive MGMT Systems / Date opened: 04/01/2010 /Amount: $37 (Highly Possible a Medical Collection) Progressive MGMT Systems / Date opened: 03/01/2010 /Amount: $1,348 (Possible a Cap One Account) Progressive MGMT Systems / Date opened: 01/01/2010 /Amount: $261 (Highly Possible a Medical Collection) Steps based on my research: Opt Out – Done Remove old address – In progress NEXT STEP POSSIBILITES: DV letters to both CA’s, then if the “possible medical collection” items come back, then respond with a HIPAA letter AND DV letters for all accounts to the CRA’s at the same time? DV letters to CA’s? DV letters to CRA’s? Other? Which of these would be best based on my scenario? Any other suggestions regarding my scenario would be GREATLY appreciated. Thanks in advance for your help!

Hello WhyChat and everyone. I have been on the path to restore my credit for some many months/years. I have obtained paper copies and have cleaned my reports of almost all baddies except for medical collections. All three reports are clean of addresses, names, phone numbers, etc that are not current. Also, I'm opted out. After reading a post about how soon obsolete tradelines/collections could be taken off, I recently disputed an old non-medical tradeline (only showing on TU) as obsolete, which it was (and was deleted). With the quick success of that, I also have one medical tradeline which is around the 6 year, 6 month time that I figured I'd attempt to get taken off early. It's in the dispute stage right now; and I should hear something no later than the 15th of the month next month. Other than that, none of my other medical accounts have ever been disputed before - but I'm wondering if I should be patient after the results come back regardless of results. Will this change anything? I know WhyChat says wait 3 months since any previous disputes, but even if this fails the longest this will take to be removed will be Jan. 2015. If I could get everything else taken care of and simply have to wait for this to age naturally; I'd be fine with that.

5 years ago I went to the ER and received stitches. I was covered by medical insurance at the time. I gave my driver's license and medical card to the hospital. two months later, the hospital called to tell me they had the wrong address. I corrected the information wit them over the phone and received the hospital bill which I submitted to my provider, and it was paid. What I didn't know at the time, was that the hospital had also supplied the on-call doctor with my billing info and he sent me a separate bill, also to the wrong address. Since the hospital never sent the corrected information to the doctor, he sold the billing to collections. The collections agency figured out the correct address and started sending me collection notices. This was now approx. 6 months after the medical services were rendered and I didn't know what the collections were, I thought they might be a scam, so I ignored them. When the charges showed on my credit report, I called the collection agency and they told me it was for unpaid medical services. When I told them that the hospital bill was paid, they told me this was for other charges from the doctor, and they knew the doctor had the wrong billing information. I explained to them that my medical provider would no longer cover these charges, since they must be submitted within 6 months. I said I would pay out of pocket, but I wanted the collection removed from the report. I was entitled to an itemized bill, and I had never received one through no fault of my own. They refused. I sent a letter to the AG and he responded that the collection was valid since services were rendered. Again, I have no problem with paying out of pocket even though I was paying for insurance premiums. It's not about the money. I don't want the negative mark on my report. Also, the hospital is now out of business, and the doctor's office refuses to send me any proof that they had the wrong address on file, although they admit over the phone that they did, and that they received it from the hospital. The person I spoke to in billing said that since I didn't investigate the collection notices right away, I am to blame. I don't think this is true. I thought all medical services had been paid for, and I never received an original itemized bill. Should the collection agency have contacted the original creditor once they found out what the correct address was? Do I have any recourse to get this removed? Thanks, dr789

First off, let me say that I have visited WhyChat's site and read as much info as I can but I don't always understand what everything means. So I am asking the question here because I feel absolutely violated right now and want to know if health laws allow collection agents to such personal information. I have a credit attorney who my partner got for me who has dealing with validating and disputing. So I open the mailbox as they're now sending the stuff to me not her and two collection agencies came back with proof of the original bill. However what is the information contained in them. Sent through a CA and not the OC. One of them was from being in Rehab and every little detail was sent to me directly from the collection agent. The code for my diagnosis while seeing the shrink there was available but the diagnosis blacked out. However, it is repeated several times over the next two pages without the diagnosis blacked out -both the medical code is there AND the diagnosis. So these CA's are looking at psychiatrist's diagnosis: fibromyalgia, severe anxiety disorder, severe post traumatic disorder I understand they have to prove the debt from the OC but what rights do with I have with HiPPA (which I've never understood) to some sort of privacy? Are they allowed to know my longterm psychiatric diagnoses that even my family isn't allowed to ask for in a session???? I am sorry if this post is not as business like as most on CreditBoards but I really am beside myself right now. -- The second bill that was validated was from my old gynecologist and it has down exactly what I was being tested for which was for HPV. Which is a sexually transmittable disease. Albeit not in the traditional I know. But a woman gets tested for HPV because men can carry it and if it is passed to woman it is believed to be one of the main she gets cervical cancer. I know it is not as sensitive material as being tested for Herpes, HIV, Syphillis - you name it. But it is highly personal and you are being tested to see if you partner passed it to you during sex! And this came straight from a CA NOT from an OC. As I said, I follow the steps if someone tells me which order to go in but I don't seem to be able to grasp what the laws really are and what people are entitled to know about my medical history. So if anyone could please tell me if this is legal for them to have a psychiatrist's diagnosis and to have the specifics of sexual tests I would really appreciate it because I have never felt so violated before. These are people that are getting 10 bucks an hour and passed through for the next wave that comes in and they're reading my info? And if they were google my name, it would come up as a public figure due to my occupation and exposure? Hope somebody reads this that knows this stuff. Thanks and sorry for the rant.

I am so overwhelmed. http://creditboards.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=533733&hl= I was sent this direction to post in medical- and I am attempting to start the process for the medical bills, but have so many questions! DO I have to opt out? What does it mean I am opting out of insurance also? My credit report came up with my maiden name (Been married 4+ years) does that matter? Do I opt out under my maiden name or my married name? Also, for verification, I have a couple of disputes on my credit report, I am not supposed to even look at those until I clear up the medical ones, right?

In my late teens I was out on my own and very troubled. I used to need weekly therapy visits and other various medical services, and though I had insurance through the community college I was going to, I often couldn't pay the copayments. I let the bills stack in a high pile in my living room, and going near them put me into a panic attack. Around 7 years ago I decided enough was enough. I checked my credit reports and found that my scores were in the low 500's, and I had 5-7 collections on each report. I also had a credit card with a $2k limit, which I had maxed out for car repairs years prior and was only able to make minimum payments on. In addition, I had some delinquencies for a Sallie Mae student loan, who offer zero forbearance options. And then I found creditboards and decided to do something about all of this. Updated all personal info, removed old info Opted out of marketing and pre-screening WhyChat's HIPAA process for removing the medical collections Waited 2+ years and disputed Sallie Mae lates Paid off Auto loan with no late payments Disputed other small non-medical collections like one from Verizon (they barely gave me time to pay an overdue bill one time and went straight to the CA's) And finally, used my tax return refunds and job raises to pay down the credit card 7 years later, all collections from my reports are gone. All delinquiencies are gone. My credit card debt is zero. Unfortunately, I have a huge amount of installment history due to my student loans (around $70k total) but they are all in good status. I recently checked my FAKO and FICO scores just to get a general idea. 7 years ago: All scores in low 500's After years of certified mailings, phone calls, and research... Jan. 2014, before SallieMae lates removed and CC not paid off EX: 691, EQ: 730, TU: 673 July 2014, all collections and lates removed and CC paid off EX: 780, EQ: 779, TU: 782 My medical debt was the biggest and worst part, I had over a dozen collections. WhyChat's process helped me. Thank you, WhyChat and creditboards!

I have a question on wording a settlement offer for a hospital on a medical debt. I have a settlement letter that will serve as an agreement for a regular cc debt, but I don't know if I should use the same letter or add extra wording to include HIPAA rights or so on. Backstory, which you will find on my other posts: Hospital original charge $3900, been paying for over 2 years now down to $3500, sent to collections. I have spoken with the manager of the billing department of the hospital and we reached a settlement lower than original amount and they have agreed to retract the account from collections once the payment has been made (that took time to convince because he wanted to just have the collection updated as paid "claiming" once it's sent it cannot be retracted, but everyone on this board knows it can). I will fax over the settlement letters for him to sign and I will not send the cashiers check until the letter is signed and returned to me. I have copied what the letter will state. I have not include important information such as name of hospital, blah, blah, blah. Please help me in the correct way to word this so I can get it sent to him as soon as possible. Thank you! Yes WhyChat, I have gone through all your steps and I'm on the step to "insert a" and make full payment, but I can't afford full payment but have saved up enough to settle. The Letter I Will Send: Dear Creditor, This letter is to confirm the settlement offer made between myself and your customer service representative ___________________ phone number _______________ made on ________, 20__. I really appreciate the fact that your company is willing to work with me on this matter; I wanted to make an honest attempt to settle this debt. The amount your customer service representative and I agreed to settle this debt in full is $___________. In addition, you will retract this debt from Collection Agency, any references on my credit reports (TransUnion, Experian or Equifax) relating to this debt as a collection or as late payment, paid collection or charge off regarding this account are removed from my credit file. If these terms are acceptable to your company, please sign the attached letter of agreement and return a copy to me. Upon receipt of this signed acknowledged agreement, I will express you a cashier’s check in the amount stated above. Yours truly, Your name Enclosed attachments. Agreement to settle a debt This contract shall serve to spell out the terms of a settlement offer between <insert your name>, hereafter referred to as CONSUMER and <insert credit card company’s name>, hereafter referred to as CREDITOR on acct number _______________________. Upon receipt of a certified check from the CONSUMER for $______________, the creditor agrees that this balanced owed on acct number _______________ is zero and that no further payment or fees are due from the CONSUMER at any time in the future. In addition, the creditor agrees to remove any references to late payment or charge off regarding this account from CONSUMER’s credit file, and will instruct any collection agency assigned by CREDITOR or its assignees to collect this alleged debt to do the same. This contract supersedes all other contract between the debtor and creditor. _______________________________________________ Date:___________ CONSUMER I attest that I am authorized to make decisions regarding the making and acceptance of settlement offers for outstanding credit card for the <insert credit card company’s name> company. Read, Approved and Accepted by:____________________ Date:__________ CREDITOR

Two years ago I had an emergency appendectomy in-between jobs (no insurance). I went to my nearest hospital about 15 minutes away. I applied for state-sponsored insurance afterwards (not Medicaid), which was granted, but my surgery was denied because I didn't go to my medical home. My medical home was over two hours away—not something I could have done in an emergency situation. I appealed, but because I didn't do this within 30 days of the denial, it was denied, again. I just received a letter from the hospital saying they denied my financial assistance request (despite obviously needing it) because it has been sent to collections. I'm now stuck with this $17,000 hospital bill I can't pay. I have other medical debt in collections, too because I can't pay. I'm overwhelmed and I don't know where to even begin. I don't have any assets, and I don't make enough to even cover my basic needs now (we're on food stamps & WIC). Thanks for any and all help/guidance!

I just received a validation letter that states: Acct# Client(OC) Amount We have verified that you have the capability to pay the balance on this account. Call our office immediately to take care of this matter. I know that is not legal validation of a medical debt. What are my next steps? They already validated through a dispute on my husbands credit. They also have his name spelled wrong..anything I can do with that?

I apologize if this has been answered. I have searched for 3 days now trying to see if I could find a specific answer, I have found similar but not exact. 10/13 I was in an auto accident (which is the reason for the BK now) I was the middle car in the three car accident, my insurance had to pay for my medical bills. There is one bill for 84$ that was not paid. I notified the OC in March 2014 that I intended to file bankruptcy, they made note of it, April 3rd I filed, and the stay letters from BK court were sent out. Fast forward to June 9, 2014 a collection shows up on my credit report for $84.00 and tanks my already credit score by about 30 points moving me from one credit level down to another. I contact the OC and she tells me she received notice of my bk filing but until its discharged they continue collection activities. Does that defeat the purpose of the stay? She forwarded my bankruptcy information to the collection agency and now it reports as a collection in bk status and updated today to bk discharged. If they filed the collection after the bk was filed isn't that a violation? How can I get them to remove that collection from the reports? I have been reading Whychat's HIPPA guide but since I do not owe this bill as it has been discharged by chap 7 bk, and it is being reported after the bk was filed I am unsure what direction to proceed. Again sorry if this has come up before, I searched and could not find a specific answer. Thank you for any help.

So I am completely new to this forum, I have read over WhyChats page and before I started on his program, I just wanted to make sure his guidelines are for my situation. I am just stressed that some of these creditors are going to try and take me to court for this when I go and try to dig up dirt and disputing some of this. I am 24 and I have another baby on the way so my husband and I are trying to get into a home, but of course we have to fix our credit first. Here is what my credit is looking like: TransUnion: Capital One Opened 9/12/2010 Last payment made 08/27/2013 Original ChargeOff $683 Status Charged Off. (Credit Card) Verizon Date Opened 2/18/2009 Payment Received $0 Original ChargeOff $765 Status Charged Off Wells Fargo Opened 6/20/2010 Last payment made 8/26/2013 ChargeOff $589 Status Charged Off (Credit Card) Central Finance Control Placed for collection 12/5/2013 Balance $151(Medical) Central Finance Control Placed for collection 2/20/13 Balance $1,222(Medical) CMI Placed for collection 12/22/2013 Balance $504(Medical) Security Collection Placed for collection 7/3/2013 Balance $100(Medical) Stern and Associates Placed for collection 4/15/2013 Balance $75(Medical) Experian: Amerifinancial Solutions 5/2014 $893 (Medical) Capital One (same as above) Central Financial Control (Same as above) $1,222 (Medical) Central Financial Control (Same as above) $151 (Medical) Credit Management Opened 12/2013 $504 Collections (Time Warner) Enhanced Recovery Corporation 9/20213 $628 (Comcast) - I have disputed this one several times because I never had them, it disappears then 5 or 6 months later shows back up Kross/Lieberman & Stone 1/2013 $243 (Medical) Stern and Associates (Same as above) $ 75 (Medical) Verizon (Same as above) $765 Wells Fargo (Same as above) $589 (Credit Card) I do have two car loans that are in good standings on all 3 credit reports, one has been open 2 years with no missed or late payments and the other 1 year with no missed or late payments so they are somewhat working in my favor to help rebuild my credit Do I start with having my old address removed and then continuing the rest of WhyChat's process, or should I just not stir anything and pray no one takes me to court?! Sorry for the long post, just a bit confused on what path I should take to get started on.

I see this come up a lot with medical collections, and other states may have a similar statue in place. This is probably already posted somewhere on CB, but I just ran across a Texas law that indicates a patient cannot be billed if the provider fails to file a claim with their insurance provider in accordance with said law. (See last subsection, § 146.003. Certain Claims Barred) Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 146.001 (2000) § 146.001. Definitions In this chapter: (1) "Health benefit plan" means a plan or arrangement under which medical or surgical expenses are paid for or reimbursed or health care services are arranged for or provided. The term includes: (A) an individual, group, blanket, or franchise insurance policy, insurance agreement, or group hospital service contract; (b ) an evidence of coverage or group subscriber contract issued by a health maintenance organization or an approved nonprofit health corporation; (C ) a benefit plan provided by a multiple employer welfare arrangement or another analogous benefit arrangement; (D) a workers' compensation insurance policy; or (E) a motor vehicle insurance policy, to the extent the policy provides personal injury protection or medical payments coverage. (2) "Health care service provider" means a person who, under a license or other grant of authority issued by this state, provides health care services the costs of which may be paid for or reimbursed under a health benefit plan. § 146.002. Timely Billing Required (a) Except as provided by Subsection (b ) or ©, a health care service provider shall bill a patient or other responsible person for services provided to the patient not later than the first day of the 11th month after the date the services are provided. (b ) If the health care service provider is required or authorized to directly bill the issuer of a health benefit plan for services provided to a patient, the health care service provider shall bill the issuer of the plan not later than: (1) the date required under any contract between the health care service provider and the issuer of the health benefit plan; or (2) if there is no contract between the health care service provider and the issuer of the health benefit plan, the first day of the 11th month after the date the services are provided. (c ) If the health care service provider is required or authorized to directly bill a third party payor operating under federal or state law, including Medicare and the state Medicaid program, the health care service provider shall bill the third party payor not later than: (1) the date required under any contract between the health care service provider and the third party payor or the date required by federal regulation or state rule, as applicable; or (2) if there is no contract between the health care service provider and the third party payor and there is no applicable federal regulation or state rule, the first day of the 11th month after the date the services are provided. (d) For purposes of this section, the date of billing is the date on which the health care service provider's bill is: (1) mailed to the patient or responsible person, postage prepaid, at the address of the patient or responsible person as shown on the health care service provider's records; or (2) mailed or otherwise submitted to the issuer of the health benefit plan or third party payor as required by the health benefit plan or third party payor. § 146.003. Certain Claims Barred (a) A health care service provider who violates Section 146.002 may not recover from the patient any amount that the patient would have been entitled to receive as payment or reimbursement under a health benefit plan or that the patient would not otherwise have been obligated to pay had the provider complied with Section 146.002. (b ) If recovery from a patient is barred under this section, the health care service provider may not recover from any other individual who, because of a family or other personal relationship with the patient, would otherwise be responsible for the debt.

Hello and first of all thanks to everyone especially why chat for the valuable information on this forum. I am about to start the process of trying to get a single medical collection off my wife's reports. The collection is from 6 years ago so has just a year left, but it will hurt our attempts at a mortgage this year, so that's why I'm going to go through this. Mostly I am starting this thread to document our progress. Hopefully this will be valuable to others as well. At this point I have done the quick opt-out per Why Chat's instructions. We have moved a couple times since the medical bill in question from 2008. So I will be sending the letter to delete the old address from my wife's reports that matches the medical collection. However, my wife also had a different married name (from a previous marriage) at the time. Should I also try and get that name deleted?

Hi All. I had a medical bill from 2012 go into collections and I neglected to pay the collection agency, mostly because I was young and dumb at the time. So, it went to small claims court and we settled out of court saying I would pay $25 a week until it was paid off to the law office the collection agency sent it to. Also, a public record is now on my CR. UGH My issue is right now, I have about 1-2 payments left due, but I could pay it all at once if I had to. I was wondering what I should do with the last payment(s). I heard it doesnt really help your score when its paid in full, so I was wondering if anyone had any advice. I sent out a PFD letter last week to the CA and the law firm, but havent heard back. Should I wait on that? I found Why Chat's steps yesterday, but didnt know where to start as I didnt start from the beginning and it was hard to tell from other peoples situations. I did however, remove my name with the opt out step, but nothing past that. Any help would on what to do next would be great.. Thank you!

Well GOOD NEWS! MSCB delete med collection 2204! But getting nowhere with 2 charge offs from before my bankruptcy still showing bad debt on eq and tu. Ex shows IIB? Called and got through at Cap 1 and got some nonsense about their system is down. Already disputed once, this is round 2 any advice???

Every year in January I order my 3 free reports. Equifax came back clean, Experian says I need to manually verify myself before they give me a report, and Trans Union has a collection account! This account was from an emergency room visit for my son back in Feb 2013, and I paid the amount shown and have a credit card statement that shows the amount being paid in May 2013. It was reported to collections in June 2013. It's for a low amount - just over $100. I'd very happily pay if I can get it off my report. Here's what I have done so far: 1. NOT contacted the CA at all 2. Contacted the bill provider for the hospital which is the OC. They are insisting they don't see the same evidence of payment as I do and asked for the credit card statement. I faxed it to the OC on Friday. There's not enough information on the statement to charge my credit card (missing the expiration date and CCR code) 3. Started a dispute process with TransUnion online claiming that the debt was paid, and also mailed them copies of my credit card statement showing the line item where it was indeed paid.. I did all this before finding out about this forum. My questions are: 1. Did I do anything fatal to getting the negative collections item removed? 2. What will likely happen next with the OC and the dispute with TransUnion? 3. I know this CA reports to Experian as well so I am assuming that is why they want me to manually verify myself, as there is an Unpaid Collections on my report. 4. Should I fax a PFD letter to the CA next week to try to go that route as well?

Just had to share: I started with the pre-HIPAA, as WhyChat says, just around a month ago, after having foolishly sent a PFD offer (that was obviously rejected). Should have done it sooner - wish I had known sooner. There was only one collection I was dealing with, and it was reporting as a current/open, so was really hitting my scores pretty bad. TU responded within about 4-5 days with a deletion. Got my EQ and EX responses today - both deleted. Thank you, WhyChat, I would have never known I could even try this without all of your information.

Hello all, haven't posted here in a good, long while. I'm back to seek some advice. I'm helping my wife repair her credit. There's an account on her Exp report that she needs to deal with - a small medical bill of $298 from 2009 that went into collection in 2010. We were going to use Why Chat's HIPAA letter program to try to deal with this, but there's a notation on her report that the account is in dispute. Just wondering if this "Acct in dispute" notation should be dealt with first (try to get it removed), or does she just proceed with the HIPAA letter process? Thanks!

(Oops...*breach. Can't edit title) I received a letter today from the Privacy Office of St. Joseph Hospital System, because a hospital at which I received care in 2007 has experienced a security attack on one of their servers back in December. This was the first I'd heard of this, and I just searched online to confirm the info. The letter is from Suwanee, GA, and the location applicable to me is in Bryan, Texas. According to several news reports, multiple facilities within this hospital system were affected, and the servers were accessed from a location in China. It went on for 2 days before it was discovered and the server shut down. But all of my personal info was on that server. If you think you may be affected, be sure to Google for more info, because I assume I can't post a link to an external source here. The hospital system is paying for a year of ID theft prevention and resolution services for anyone affected.

Sorry in advance for the long first post. My wife has a bill from her labor & delivery in July 2013. We prepared for some expenses at the beginning of the year but did not expect complications that led to about $800 in meds and DME, and a week in the hospital for mom and baby after delivery. So after paying for the meds and DME we had a $1500 bill from the hospital. I wanted to try getting it reduced since our income is at ~150% FPL but couldn't get the paperwork figured out. Long story short, I was putting it off until we got our tax return, checking the bills for "final notice" or "past due" in case we needed to just throw it on a credit card, and I was reading the bill wrong so missed the fine print and we got a letter from the CA this week. The CA letter has our correct information and amount, plus interest. The letter reads: Your delinquent account has been assigned to USCB America to collect the balance now due. USCB is not aware of any reason for your nonpayment. If you do not dispute the amount owing, please pay the balance due. And on the back: INTEREST DISCLAIMER: In the event your account is accruing interest, be advised that because interest charges vary from day to day, the amount due on the day you pay may be greater than the total amount due referenced on the front of this notice. I tried to research what to do which is how I ended up here. I told my wife not to talk to them if they call her. The letter says the debt was assigned to the CA, not purchased by the CA, so I called the hospital billing to confirm the amount due and ask how we can pay. The hospital billing rep gave me the amount due without interest, and said we can pay them directly, but she said two things that I don't completely understand. First she said, the account is in collections, and so the CA might charge interest, even though the hospital isn't charging interest - it sounded like she was saying the CA was charging the hospital interest, but she was definitely implying that this interest was our problem, not the hospital's problem. I tried to get her to explain but all I got was that we would find out within 30 days if interest was an issue. I thought a CA can't charge interest on a debt they don't own, but if they owned the debt, 1) why would the letter say "assigned" and 2) why would the hospital still accept payment or even talk to me at all? Second thing that I didn't understand: She said when we pay the bill, the hospital will tell the CA that we paid it. That's exactly what she said, but I don't think that's what we want. It sounds like they're going to put it on the wife's credit report as a collections account. I want to just pay them off, I can put it on the credit card and worst case scenario we pay a month of interest before our tax return comes (just waiting for the W-2s, they usually come at the beginning of February from wife's employer), but only if it's going to keep the debt from going on wife's credit report. Today we pulled her reports and there are no bad marks with 2 of the agencies, we have to wait for the trans union report to come by mail because she made a mistake in the identity verification step, but she checked her credit karma account (which uses trans union) and it's not showing up there so we're assuming the account has not been reported to the CRAs. (So I don't think we can use Why Chat's HIPAA process since we have no collections account to dispute to the CRAs which is the first step.) In a perfect world here is what I would do: Send a cashier's check to the hospital with a letter insisting that they instruct the CA to nuke the account without reporting it since there is no payment due, reference applicable laws (FCRA, HIPAA, others?), and relax. Is this the right move? I'm worried that if we rush to pay the hospital they will just tell the CA to report the account as paid. And to be honest, if she has to have a bad mark on her credit either way, I would just as soon wait until we can negotiate a smaller settlement from the CA. Thanks for your advice.