Will I be stuck with this debt?

All you have to do is send the collection companies proof that the bills were paid to the hospital, and/or an error of the insurance companies.

That proof will be in the form of a billing statement showing a zero balance, a canceled check, or written correspondence from the insurance company/hospital that you were billed in error.

I had a similar problem with some hospital bills in California because I kept getting rejected for private insurance coverage and it took so long for the county to approve my application for financial assistance as a medically indigent resident. I just kept giving the collection agencies the application account number and the name and phone number of the person processing the application. Eventually it all got approved and no collection agencies had to be paid.

Thank you for your response. I was hoping that would be the case.

I do believe this will eventually clear up for you but YOU have to push...and it is now with the collection...get a manager there to speak too along with hospital billing manager to find out specifically who will be responsible for clearing up this mYep, this hcare system today...it is a BUSINESS and what do businesses do??? MAKE MONEY....if you can stay out of healthcare system and pay by cash......;-) Unfortunately it will take much work to get this off credit report, collections are.masters at game playing and you will never know who your dealing with...they all have alias..? Got a lawyer friend...and Accountant for future....find out ways to protect self...good luck but be ready for games!

You are now stuck in an incredible boondoggle. Hospital administrators and collection agencies are the scum of the Earth. Good luck.

Exactly. Our hospital set up a payment plan with someone I used to work with, but at the end of the year they sold the balance to a collection agency. Now, once the agency owns the debt, you can talk to the hospital till you're blue in the face, but it won't make a bit of difference - unless they treat you for having a blue face.

and then they'll bill you at triple the going rate and turn it over to a collection agency.

Until prohibited by Medicare, is was accepted practice to bill for infections and disease acquired during hospital stays. Now, Medicare not only won't pay, they don't even allow them to bill Medicare patients privately. Poor babies.

This has always struck me as similar to having a good tune-up done by your mechanic, and then being billed for a massive carburator repair because he stuck his big foot in the middle of it while working on something else.

I just received a 143.00 bill from the spine center at UNC...not for the consultation, not for the doctor or any services I received, but merely for the room I sat in for 15 minutes while he talked to me, above and beyond the other charges, I **** you not.

Yes; their rationale is that thay are compelled to give free medical care to the poor,
so thay grab the cash wherever thay can get it, to fund it.





David

proof positive we're paying for everyone to have healthcare already.

Many people, for a massive amount of factors, think debt collectors are some of the worst of the worst. Like any set, a bad apple tends to spoil the bunch and many of these hard-working folks go misinterpreted by many. A story about a debt collected calmly and without incident isn't very fascinating, and that's why it does not get reported on. I read this here: Debt collectors trying to polish image in media, personalmoneystore.com/moneyblog

If that had happened to me,
I 'd have some fun with it; I 'd play with it, disputing the value
and tell them to prove the $143 in court.

Maybe in the 1980s, I got a fone call from a hospital
to which a friend n client had been admitted.
A clerk from its billing dept. demanded payment
for certain designated medicines and medical services
rendered on a particular indicated date.

I played with the bill collecting clerk for a while, for fun,
demanding her assurances that those medicines had been
applied on that date. After repeated declarations of certainty
that thay HAD been, I inquired as to Y thay were administering
those drugs about a week after her death in their hospital,
according to their death certificate. She did not have a good answer.





David