Retroactive MediCare & Collections

[phoenixnova]

Hello Everyone,

 

I was recently approved for Disability after a 7 year wait, and my MediCare benefits are retroactive about 5 years. I have several medical collections accounts. Thankfully some had fallen off, and others I was able to dispute, but there are still some left.

 

I was thinking if I call them up and have them bill MediCare, it would remove them from my credit report, but have been unsure, so I came on here to do some research. I'm not sure, but from what I can gather, if I do this I could end up with paid collections on my Credit Report? So instead I should do the HIPAA Letter Program? I took a look, but my head is about ready to explode from information overload! But...okay it seems to be sputtering along again, there's the question I wanted to ask... I got tripped up because it says to send a CASH payment. Do I really need to do that? Am I looking at the wrong section? If I did that for them all, that would amount to a lot of money. Most are over two years old, so they even have interest added, not to mention that seems a little nutty since MediCare should cover most of it...

 

Can someone please let me know if I'm on the right path? I already opted out, and requested my Lexis Nexis reports and MIB reports, and will double check/delete my old address from my CRs (I had done this before but have moved recently.)

 

Thanks!

[Why Chat]

I doubt very much that you can get the OC ( original creditor) health care providers paid retroactively.

 

The CAs ( collection agencies) who are reporting are not likely to be the original CAs , they are probably JDBs ( junk debt buyers)

 

Congratulations on getting covered. Gather any bills you PAID and submit them to Medicare for reimbursement to you.

 

Follow the guides:

 

http://www.whychat.5u.com/GUIDEBOOK.html

http://www.whychat.5u.com/GUIDE%20HIPAA%20PROGRAM.html

 

If you opt out, delete old addresses, send the initial dispute letter to the CRAs, and get DOCUMENTATION of a CURRENT business relationship between the OC and the reporting CA, you can then, AND ONLY THEN send the OC the HIPAA letter insert "a" and replace the phrase about a money order with the data of your Medicare coverage being effective retroactively.

 

UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES should you have Medicare pay ANY CA directly.

[phoenixnova]

Thank You WhyChat, for your quick response and answering my question.

 

Now I have another. I have disputed nearly all my medical collections on my CR in the past 18 months (online). However, I am unclear as to what constitutes "verfication of a current business relationship". I did receive responses from the CRA, but they just say they account has been verified, updated, remains after investigation, etc. So does the that constitute the above?Do I still need to go ahead and send the HIPAA dispute letter to the CRA for more thorough documentation from them? Or can I skip that and send the HIPAA letter to the OCs?

 

Thanks again!

[Why Chat]

No, a simple "verification" from the CRAs is the same as NO response at all. You can not "skip" any of the steps.

http://www.whychat.5u.com/GUIDEBOOK.html

http://www.whychat.5u.com/GUIDE%20HIPAA%20PROGRAM.html

 

Start over.

 

Use the initial dispute letter to get results:

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

[phoenixnova]

Ok, thanks for the clarification. I actually re-checked my old reports, and realized I HAVE moved since I got rid of the old addresses (AND Experian seems to have put them ALL back on!) So I sent them letters to get them deleted, as per the instructions. I have the HIPAA initial dispute letters ready to go, too. Do I need to wait until I hear back from them regarding the address deletions to send those out? I'm guessing the answer is yes, but I'm so anxious to get it done, haha. (I've done so much work rebuilding my credit, and getting the collections off seems to be all I need to get me into the "GOOD" score range, for the first time EVER!)

[Why Chat]

Are you saying that your addresses are all good on TU and Eq?? If so, then you can send those dispute letters out, otherwise, wait until you have as many "old" addresses off from as many CRAs as possible

[HoustonLynne]

Hi Why Chat & phoenixnova,

 

I wanted to share what I ran across while reading BBB complaints against the OC I'm dealing with. For reference, the complaint was filed in November 2013, the patient's retroactive coverage was approved in July 2013, and the medical care date of service (DOS) was June 2013.

 

OP, please keep in mind that every situation is unique, and that's why we depend so heavily on Why Chat's individual guidance.

To point out a couple of examples of the differences in this situation and yours:

1. It looks like this patient had retroactive Medicaid (not Medicare) -- no idea if that would make a difference.

2. DOS in question was only the month prior to the approval of coverage -- yours appear to date back several years, in some cases.

 

I want to stress, OP, if you're following Why Chat's guidance, then please don't run off and try a BBB complaint in an effort to "expedite" things. Overall, MANY of the complaints I read were NOT resolved in favor of the consumer. However, I thought this might be encouraging on some level, simply because I've never heard of an OC applying retroactive Medicare (or any other) coverage. Good luck to you, OP!

[phoenixnova]

Thanks for the 411 HoustonLynne!

 

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