My two medical collections

[ManofB]

I wanted to post my two medical collections for organization sake, and to easily reference any questions and answers that may come up during the process.

 

I have two medical collections:

Collector A- $330.00

Collector B- $70.00

 

Opted out

 

Deleted as many old addresses that I could, EX is being a pain with one

 

EOMB- Jives with the amount due

 

I sent the Pre HIPPA dispute letter (hand written on the sheet from whychat credit confusion site) to all three CRA's on 8/20/14 via certified mail only, no return receipt, they were received 8/21, 8/23, and 8/24.

 

I figured a date of 9/28/14 for responses from the CRA's to be due- Latest CRA received date plus 30 days with an additional 5 for mail time.

 

I want to prepare the Letter to CA DV's soon so that I have them ready to go if the CRA's come back as verified.

 

I have a question about this line from the dv letter "This letter is being sent to you in response to your recent fraudulent verification of an unknown medical account on my (name of CRA) report" I don't have any communication I can locate, so I'm relying on the credit report entry.

 

These two collections are only reporting on EX and EQ, not TU. Do I indicate EX and EQ in the (name of CRA) portion together? Do I do a separate letter to the CA about each CRA? Should I include TU just to cover my bases?

 

I will update again when I receive responses from the CRA's

 

Right track so far?

Edited September 6, 2014 by ManofB

[Why Chat]

Recheck the instructions in the guide:

 

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

 

How old are the accounts?? Date of medical service.

 

No you don't include a medical DV to a CA for TU if they are not ON the TU report.

 

I would hold off preparing any medical DVs as you may get total deletions from your initial disputes.

 

If you DO have to send the medical DVs just follow the directions in the guide.

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

Use this letter to notify the agency that the debt is beyond SOL, or is invalid for other reasons, and subject to the HIPAA privacy laws. Keep a copy for your files and send the letter certified mail.EVEN IF YOU HAVE A STREET ADDRESS DO NOT USE THE RETURN RECEIPT AS THE CAs ARE USING UPS DROP BOXES, SEND IT CERTIFIED ONLY AND PRINT OUT THE ON LINE PROOF OF DELIVERY FOR THE FOLLOW UP LETTERDo a seperate letter for EACH CRA that the CA is reporting to, make sure the account #'s match the report. You can MAIL them all to each CA in ONE envelope with one certified mail #

Edited September 6, 2014 by Why Chat

[ManofB]

I received verified from EQ. I received from EX a we already investigated this and verified, will not do so again unless you provide "relevant" new info. Ok to proceed to CA DV next step based on these responses?

Edited September 9, 2014 by ManofB

[Why Chat]

Yes, proceed with the medical DVs and the follow up disputes.

[ManofB]

Just a quick update. CA finally received my DV letter yesterday- 7 days for one county over (Thanks USPS)

 

Going out CM only tomorrow is the follow up response to the CRA's

 

No information received from either of the CA's so for

 

Next steps? Wait the 30 days plus mailing time for response the DVs sent to the CAs? Then if nothing received, how would I proceed?

Edited September 22, 2014 by ManofB

[Why Chat]

The key response you need is from the CRAs-- If they BOTH do NOT delete, then come back to this post for further directions.

[ManofB]

Update- Follow up to the CRA's went out on Wednesday. No receipt yet, as they are some distance from my home state. In today's mail, I received a copy of the medical bill from the hospital as verification from one of the CA's. I'm assuming I should wait to see what action I get from the follow up from the CRA's before proceeding with sending payment to the hospital with HIPPA insert A? Or should I send that out now that I have validation?

 

The other CA has not responded, and I just have a gut feeling they won't over $70.00, but I will update if any developments on that front.

[Why Chat]

Update- Follow up to the CRA's went out on Wednesday. No receipt yet, as they are some distance from my home state. In today's mail, I received a copy of the medical bill from the hospital as verification from one of the CA's. I'm assuming I should wait to see what action I get from the follow up from the CRA's before proceeding with sending payment to the hospital with HIPPA insert A? Or should I send that out now that I have validation?

 

The other CA has not responded, and I just have a gut feeling they won't over $70.00, but I will update if any developments on that front.

What makes you think it is full verification .?? If it came from the CA what is the DATE of the transmission from the hospital to the CA.

[ManofB]

That date is not provided in their letter. If I'm understanding correctly, they have not proven they are authorized to collect on it? So is my move now to wait on the CRAs?

[Why Chat]

That date is not provided in their letter. If I'm understanding correctly, they have not proven they are authorized to collect on it? Correct So is my move now to wait on the CRAs? Yes

What is the date on the copy of the medical bill from the hospital ??

[ManofB]

Date of bill: 1/18/2010

[Why Chat]

Date of bill: 1/18/2010

Obviously they have regurgitated a 4 year old bill that they obtained at the time they obtained the account-- no way of telling where they got the account from. If they had a CURRENT relationship with the OC they would have obtained an updated account summary from the OC.

[ManofB]

Received the following response from Experian after my CRA follow up letter, not sure what to make of it or how to proceed. They bolded the language about the CFPB. What should my next step be?

 

 

 

When a medical bill is seriously past due, the provider may use an internal collection department, hire an attorney or contract with a collection agency to collect the payments, and this information may be reported to us since it is a financial obligation. Once the payments have been collected, the account will display as "paid/collection" and may remain on the report for seven years. Because we cannot display certain medical information relating to physical, mental, or behavioral health or conditions by law, the company name will display only as "Medical payment data."

 

Although we do not generally collect this type of information, it may appear in the name of a data furnisher, for example "Cancer Center." To prevent this, we mask the names of data furnishers that provide us medical payment history when we provide your information to others.

 

This requirement does not extend to the payment history that the data furnisher provides us. Your payment history with this creditor will be displayed in reports to others.

 

When you dispute the accuracy or completeness of information on your personal credit report and tell us specifically why you believe the information is inaccurate or incomplete, we process your dispute as required by law. We contact the furnisher of the information or the vendor that collected the information from a public record source such as a court or other government office. We ask the furnisher or vendor to conduct a thorough and complete investigation to verify all of the information regarding the item you disputed, and report back within 30 days of the date that we received your request (21 days for Maine residents and 45 days for disputes of information on an annual free credit report). We review and consider the response to determine whether to accept it, reject it, or follow up for additional information. If, after processing, we find that the disputed information is inaccurate, incomplete, or cannot be verified, we then delete that information, or modify that information, as appropriate, based upon your dispute and the results of our processing. If we do not receive a response from the furnisher or the vendor within the required period, we update the items as you have requested or delete the information, and send you the results. In some instances, upon reviewing your credit file and any relevant information you have submitted to us, we are able to determine whether the disputed information should be changed or deleted without having to contact the furnisher or the vendor. After we complete our processing, we send you the results. In addition to your right to dispute information in your credit file with the credit reporting agencies, you also have the right to dispute information in your credit report directly with the furnisher of the information.

 

If you question the results of our dispute process, then you may want to contact the furnisher of information directly or review the original information in the public record. Please refere to your original personal credit report for the furnisher or public records office name, address, and phone number (if available).

 

According to the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), a national consumer credit reporting agency's role in the dispute process is to review the accuracy and completeness of any disputed item which may include contacting the source of the disputed information and informing them of all relevant information regarding the consumer's dispute. If the issue is not resolved, then the consumer credit reporting agency must offer to include a consumer statement on the personal credit report.

 

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (the government agency charged with enforcement of the FCRA) does not require that the consumer credit reporting agency obtain documentation such as the actual signed sales slips, signature cards, contracts, etc; nor does it require that consumer credit reporting agencies act as mediators or negotiators in account disputes.

[Why Chat]

It is a standardized boilerplate automated response.

 

What was your response from Eq??

 

Am I correct that the accounts are NOT on your TU report??

[ManofB]

It is a standardized boilerplate automated response.

 

What was your response from Eq??

 

Am I correct that the accounts are NOT on your TU report??

 

Nothing from EQ yet (they still have 4 days), and correct, these are not on my TU report.

[ManofB]

I have not received anything from Equifax, so I logged onto USPS and it still shows out for delivery on September 27th. I logged into EQ backdoor and it says mailed results, info says consumer disputes after resolution. So that coupled with the boilerplate response I got from Experian tells me I'm not getting deletions via CRA's, what should my next move be?

[Why Chat]

If the "bill" you received CAME from the CA, send them a copy of your original medical DV and request they respond to the paragraphs here:

 

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. and authorization under subtitle D of the ARRA ,SEC. 13401. APPLICATION OF SECURITY PROVISIONS AND PENALTIES TO BUSINESS ASSOCIATES OF COVERED ENTITIES;and SEC. 13407(1) BREACH OF SECURITY.—The term ‘‘breach of security’’ means, with respect to unsecured PHR identifiable health information of an individual in a personal health record, acquisition of such information without the authorization of the individual. Please note that enforcement of penalties against you is covered under the penalty rules of the Omnibus Final Rule effective 09/23/2013 interpreting and implementing various provisions of the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act of 2009 (HITECH Act) as issued 11/30/2009 and the penalty rules of the FCRA and FACTA including FACT Act changes final rules effective July 1, 2010. . 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.

[ManofB]

Excellent, will do.

 

What should I do about the other collection? They didn't send anything in response to the CA DV nor as a result of either CRA dispute.

[Why Chat]

Wait until after you have a response from the CA you are writing, then double check your reports to see if there has been any change, ( back door).

 

I assume you sent the follow up disputes and that your recent responses from the CRAs were a result of that follow up dispute.

 

If you do NOT get a COMPLETE verification from the CA that documents a CURRENT relationship and both the accounts are still on both the Eq and Ex reports, then wait until Dec. and file a CFPB complaint against each of the CRAs.

 

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

 

Be sure to stress that you have made every effort to obtain validation of both of these unknown medical accounts and that there has been no valid response.

 

Of course if the CA that sent you a copy of the bill DOES provide documentation of a current relationship, then you can pay the OC with the HIPAA letter insert "a".

[ManofB]

 

If the "bill" you received CAME from the CA, send them a copy of your original medical DV and request they respond to the paragraphs here:

 

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. and authorization under subtitle D of the ARRA ,SEC. 13401. APPLICATION OF SECURITY PROVISIONS AND PENALTIES TO BUSINESS ASSOCIATES OF COVERED ENTITIES;and SEC. 13407(1) BREACH OF SECURITY.—The term ‘‘breach of security’’ means, with respect to unsecured PHR identifiable health information of an individual in a personal health record, acquisition of such information without the authorization of the individual. Please note that enforcement of penalties against you is covered under the penalty rules of the Omnibus Final Rule effective 09/23/2013 interpreting and implementing various provisions of the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act of 2009 (HITECH Act) as issued 11/30/2009 and the penalty rules of the FCRA and FACTA including FACT Act changes final rules effective July 1, 2010. . 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.

 

 

Do I send this CM or does this one go with CMRR?

[Why Chat]

CMRR

[ManofB]

Update: The $70.00 collection dropped from Experian, but remains on Equifax.

 

The $300 collection remains (the one who sent the bill with a date of 2010) on both EX and EQ, and I sent the above letter asking for the specific items, and have not received a reply. Their time is up today. So my next step would be to file CFPB complaints against EX and EQ, stating that I have exhausted all efforts to get these verified? Upload all my documentation and submit?

[Why Chat]

Yes, but do not upload ANY "documentation" that would imply that the billing is in ANY WAY yours. Just stick to the assertion that they are unknown medical accounts, possibly obsolete, that the CA was unwilling and/or unable to verify .

[ManofB]

Received response through CFPB portal from Equifax. Here it is:

 

Response
Equifax reviewed the complaint, its records and initiated a reinvestigation. *Equifax did not receive any additional communications from the consumer during the review of the complaint. *Equifax will mail the results of the reinvestigation within 30 days.

Explanation of closure
Please be advised that Equifax will not respond to this complaint via the portal as we suspect that it may have been submitted using a credit repair company. The format and verbiage of this complaint is similar to many other complaints that we have received from consumers utilizing the services of a credit repair company or 'credit clinic'. To ensure the privacy of our response, we will send the results of our reinvestigation to the consumer's current address utilizing our normal dispute process.

 

So, what do I do with that BS? I verified through my USAA pull that nothing has come off.

[Why Chat]

If you are able to respond through the portal, do so. Tell them that you are doing all this yourself and are not using a CRO and that your disputes were written in your own hand as you do not trust the CRA's automated on line dispute programs.

 

( Did you follow ALL the instructions??

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

Make sure you HAND ADDRESS the envelope,

DO NOT send it RR SEND IT CERTIFIED MAIL ONLY( WITHOUT DELIVERY CONFIRMATION)-WAIT FOR THE FULL RESPONSE FROM THE CRA BEFORE CONTINUING WITH THE HIPAA LETTER PROCESS