Re: Negoiating a settlement with deletion of prior negatives

Posted by Linda on July 14, 2001 at 12:15:51:

In Reply to: Re: Negoiating a settlement with deletion of prior negatives posted by Adam on July 12, 2001 at 04:34:20:

Adam,

I will give you an example of the total lack of integrity in the debt industry.

My Mom is 80 yrs old, She is a cancer patient. One of the hospitals who treated her filed the medicare claim ($6,000+) with incorrect diagnostic codes. My Mom is too sick to deal with this, even if she knew anything about it, which she doesn't.

When she got the notice from medicare denying payment, I called the hospital billing department and told them to fix the diagnostic codes and re-file the claim (I am an insurance agent, so I understand medicare). They acted like it was my Mom's fault the diagnostic codes were incorrect, and wanted her to get them changed. I was feeling nice that day, so I agreed to call the office of the doctor who signed the medicare forms. That Dr's billing office didn't know what I was talking about. So I called the hospital billing office again, and got a nice gal who said "you're right, this is not your mother's responsiblity, I will take care of it." I put it out of my mind.

The next thing I see is a collections letter addressed to my 80 yr old mother who is very sick. I called the collection company and told them nicely what the situation was, and suggested, politely, that they should return this account to the hospital billing dept. They acted like my Mom was a deadbeat, and refused, demanding payment. I suggested, politely, that they did not want to tangle with me, because I knew what I was doing. I told them whose error it was, and faxed them a copy of the notice from medicare saying that this bill was not my Mom's responsibility, and she did not have to pay it. The collector responded by placing the account on my Mom's spotless credit report as a collection, and proceded to call every day.

If I had not been there to help, my Mom would have been forced to endure all this torture, as sick as she was (and she was very sick).

I filed a complaint with medicare administration, and finally after many weeks of letters, some from my attorney, and the threat of a lawsuit, the hospital took the account back from the collections agency, the CA took the account off my Mom's credit report.

This is just one out of millions of collections that are not legitimate, NObody cares if they are legitimate or not, they just smelled the money - they saw a sick, 80 yr old woman, and figured she would be easy.

You think you're a cynic????? LOL. I am the cynic. And that is why I help consumers.

I can post more things like this if you like...

Linda

Follow Ups:

Post a Followup