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Old 03-12-2013, 10:23 AM
 
1 posts, read 2,673 times
Reputation: 10

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Here's my problem. I called a hospital yesterday to inform them that they had filed a charge with the wrong insurance and would need to file it with my primary insurance in order to be paid. When I gave them my name, address, etc. they suddenly told me they could not talk to me about anything because my account had been sent to collections. I, in turn, told her I had no idea what she was talking about because I had not received any bills from them to be paid. She did say it was something from 09 and 10 and I told her I still did not know what she was talking about because I had paid everything I had ever been sent. She then told me she would give me the number for the collection agency and I would just have to talk to them because she was not going to tell me anything. So, I called the collection agency.
The collection agency told me they did not have anything on me, that it must be a new account and that the hospital must have just not sent them the info on me yet. So I asked how could that be if this was from 2009 and 2010. Well, she was not helpful at all. She just kept telling me that should could not talk to me either. I would have to call back in two days. So, no one will talk to me. I can't get any info. Do I not have any rights as to my own information? I can't get this straightened out because I can't find out anything.
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Old 03-13-2013, 12:37 PM
 
Location: Kansas
25,649 posts, read 21,807,090 times
Reputation: 26239
When you called the hospital, did you just talk to the people doing the billing? If so, you need to talk with someone in the admin department. I would call and tell them that I had a complaint and wanted to know who I would talk to but don't tell them what the complaint is about because you don't want to talk to billing. If they press you, tell them you have already talked with billing and are not satisfied. Be polite but firm with them.
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Old 03-13-2013, 12:46 PM
 
Location: Huntsville, AL
1,618 posts, read 4,767,857 times
Reputation: 1517
Did the hospital billing truly look up your full info, address and all? I have an EXTREMELY common name, as does my husband, and this is a common problem for us. I routinely have to make sure that the account brought up is not just my name, but birth date and address too. I'd call back the hospital and really verify that what they are seeing is you.
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Old 03-27-2013, 06:31 PM
 
Location: Southern California
1,166 posts, read 1,624,372 times
Reputation: 2904
You might be able to call the insurance company that was erroneously billed to find out who submitted the claim (the hospital or the collection agency). It is possible the hospital has switched collection agencies since 2009/2010 and the employee was unaware of that fact when she gave you the contact information.

You can also check your credit reports. If the account was sent to a collection agency, the first thing they probably did was put you on the credit bureaus.
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Old 03-27-2013, 07:11 PM
 
Location: Hookerville, formerly in Tweakerville
15,111 posts, read 32,154,077 times
Reputation: 9689
Go to the hospital billing department in person and straighten it out.
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Old 03-27-2013, 09:09 PM
 
10,629 posts, read 26,638,574 times
Reputation: 6776
Quote:
Originally Posted by stalley47 View Post
Here's my problem. I called a hospital yesterday to inform them that they had filed a charge with the wrong insurance and would need to file it with my primary insurance in order to be paid. When I gave them my name, address, etc. they suddenly told me they could not talk to me about anything because my account had been sent to collections. I, in turn, told her I had no idea what she was talking about because I had not received any bills from them to be paid. She did say it was something from 09 and 10 and I told her I still did not know what she was talking about because I had paid everything I had ever been sent. She then told me she would give me the number for the collection agency and I would just have to talk to them because she was not going to tell me anything. So, I called the collection agency.
The collection agency told me they did not have anything on me, that it must be a new account and that the hospital must have just not sent them the info on me yet. So I asked how could that be if this was from 2009 and 2010. Well, she was not helpful at all. She just kept telling me that should could not talk to me either. I would have to call back in two days. So, no one will talk to me. I can't get any info. Do I not have any rights as to my own information? I can't get this straightened out because I can't find out anything.
I can relate. Hospitals are notorious for this kind of thing. We've had SO many problems over the year -- including most recently when the hospital sent a bill to collections the week before the FIRST bill to us was even due! Then called back the hospital, and they denied that they'd ever sent it to collections to begin with (but had no answer as to why the collections agency had our name, number, and dates of service!). We were able to work it out with the hospital. Definitely start there.

Get everything in writing. Take notes on everything, get names, ask them to mail you any of their records. If you've changed addresses make sure the hospital looks under all addresses, even if you've changed it with them ten times already. Try the hospital again first, and keep talking to someone until you get someone willing to give you information. Ask for supervisors if needed. Just because they may have sent it to collections doesn't mean that they can't talk to you. Tell them you want to know exact dates of service, as well as what date it was sent to collections. Make sure that they are looking at ALL of your accounts -- we had the experience once where the hospital was unwilling to combine different accounts (for the same person, just different dates) and when we made payments (we had worked out a payment plan), despite sending in individual checks for each bill with account number listed, the hospital still erroneously applied them all to ONE account, zero to the others, and sent two of the three accounts to collections. Lesson learned: never trust a hospital billing department, be prepared to spend lots of time on the phone, confirm payments, and don't ever trust that your payments were applied to the right place or even the right person.

And unfortunately no, I wouldn't be surprised if this is something from so many years ago. We recently got a call from a collections agency trying to collect on a hospital bill from a LONG time ago, so long ago that had long since moved from our previous address and the year of forwarding had long since expired, so when they finally got around to sending that bill no surprise it never found its way to us. You shouldn't have to settle for a vague date, though; they owe you specific dates, which you'll need so that you can then track down answers from either the collections agency and/or the insurance company. Unfortunately I'm not the best one for giving advice on how to come out ahead, as there have been times when we've broken down and paid the collections agencies for what I think were inaccurate bills just out of sheer exhaustion (nothing like kicking someone when they're down) and fear of destroying our credit. Best of luck -- if you have just one bill and it just went to collections then you might still be okay and might be able to work it out before it gets too complicated.
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Old 03-27-2013, 10:33 PM
 
48,505 posts, read 96,533,525 times
Reputation: 18301
Quote:
Originally Posted by stalley47 View Post
Here's my problem. I called a hospital yesterday to inform them that they had filed a charge with the wrong insurance and would need to file it with my primary insurance in order to be paid. When I gave them my name, address, etc. they suddenly told me they could not talk to me about anything because my account had been sent to collections. I, in turn, told her I had no idea what she was talking about because I had not received any bills from them to be paid. She did say it was something from 09 and 10 and I told her I still did not know what she was talking about because I had paid everything I had ever been sent. She then told me she would give me the number for the collection agency and I would just have to talk to them because she was not going to tell me anything. So, I called the collection agency.
The collection agency told me they did not have anything on me, that it must be a new account and that the hospital must have just not sent them the info on me yet. So I asked how could that be if this was from 2009 and 2010. Well, she was not helpful at all. She just kept telling me that should could not talk to me either. I would have to call back in two days. So, no one will talk to me. I can't get any info. Do I not have any rights as to my own information? I can't get this straightened out because I can't find out anything.
You say you know it was filed with wrong insruance but know nothing about the debt from 2009 and 2010. How do you know then about it other than your insurance contacting you or someone else.Likely the hospital has turned over the debt to colection agency by contract. Its always better to make sure hospitals are paid yourself because its you who is finally responsible as you sign that in admissions.Besides it hard to get hospitals to discuss when you do not have a bill with reference numbers as you say you never got one.
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