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Long story short my Uncle (nearly 80) went to see Dr in a big Hospital. This Dr is a nice young man, very professional.
Unfortunately the Dr didn't know we had an appointment. Hence the Dr rushed to acknowledge us. No services were rendered and the Dr apologized profusely.
Two months later my Uncle gets bill for Co-pay, and he disputes it with staff saying no services were rendered.
Finally we are told to escalate to Hospital Patient Relations. We only spoke to the Patient Relations supervisor in charge twice.
1. First when she said write a letter explaining what happened
2. A month later when she assured us the bill will be taken care of, my Uncle doesn't have to pay.
Last week we got another bill. We tried contacting Patient Relations supervisor numerous times and she never bothered to return our calls.
Yesterday we got a collection notice.
In other words, the Hospital never gave a grace period for sending the account into collections. They sent into collections without warning.
My Uncle doesn't want to fight it, he just wants to pay and get it over with.
Yesterday when I tried paying the Hospital via online, or via automated phone, it says there are no payments to be made.
My question is, who to pay? Do we pay hospital (but I'm not sure how), or do we pay Collections.
I am scared of Collections because I hear they harass people, even after they paid.
In general once is with the collection, you simply call them and find out what the total amount due, and pay them directly. I have not seen collection agent bother people after they paid.
I can't tell if you wrote a letter, but if you did, I hope you kept a copy. I can't tell during what period you called the supervisor, but remember that it's summer and many people are on vacation. Call the switchboard and ask if there is a department head. And keep a log of everyone you talk to. Did you call the doctor's office and request that they verify that there was no service? It's silly for your uncle to pay money he doesn't owe.
If you speak to a doctor in his official capacity as a doctor it is considered at least a consultation. You may think no services were rendered because he didn't give you medicine or listen to your heart but if he asked how you are that is considered a service. Anyone who has been in a hospital or had someone close to them in the hospital know about the drive by doctors who step into your room and say a sentence or two to you and then you find they billed you. Now maybe this doctor actually said nothing more than he didn't know about the appointment but I suspect he might have asked how he was or your uncle described how he was doing. The fact that you and your uncle spoke to the doctor makes it likely you have to pay. Doctors don't talk to patients in the hospital for free.
Long story short my Uncle (nearly 80) went to see Dr in a big Hospital. This Dr is a nice young man, very professional.
Unfortunately the Dr didn't know we had an appointment. Hence the Dr rushed to acknowledge us. No services were rendered and the Dr apologized profusely.
Two months later my Uncle gets bill for Co-pay, and he disputes it with staff saying no services were rendered.
Finally we are told to escalate to Hospital Patient Relations. We only spoke to the Patient Relations supervisor in charge twice.
1. First when she said write a letter explaining what happened
2. A month later when she assured us the bill will be taken care of, my Uncle doesn't have to pay.
Last week we got another bill. We tried contacting Patient Relations supervisor numerous times and she never bothered to return our calls.
Yesterday we got a collection notice.
In other words, the Hospital never gave a grace period for sending the account into collections. They sent into collections without warning.
My Uncle doesn't want to fight it, he just wants to pay and get it over with.
Yesterday when I tried paying the Hospital via online, or via automated phone, it says there are no payments to be made.
My question is, who to pay? Do we pay hospital (but I'm not sure how), or do we pay Collections.
I am scared of Collections because I hear they harass people, even after they paid.
Can you guide me.
One, this is *NOT* a NYC related query.
Two, there are numerous resources out there advising on how to deal with collection agencies.
By law collection letter must include information on how to dispute this debt. Read and follow the directions carefully. It basically comes down to writing and sending a letter to collection agency spelling out why you believe the debt is not owed/valid, and request they verify the source. IIRC you can also telephone them doing same.
Either way once you've told collection agency to dispute the debt they cannot do anything else until results of investigations have returned. If you have something in writing from hospital or whoever saying debt was cancelled, send copy to collection agency.
I used to work for a collection agency and you should call them directly and explain. If they contact the hospital, which they probably do daily since they work together, the hospital can tell them there's no debt and that's that. If they harass you beyond that, you report them.
You should have actually called the billing department of the doctor, directly. They can pull the bill back from collections and then you can pay the office directly.
I have 17 years in the medical field, specific to insurance and billing...trust me on this. As long as you are polite and firm, most places will do this. If not, then keep escalating. Medical collections can affect credit scores now, so you always want to pay direct, if you can.
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