Who do you sue in this situation? Who's to blame?

Question

You apply for a credit card and you get declined. You call and find out its because u have old medical bills on your credit report BUT u don't remember one of these visits to the doctor. You discover its from a surgery that u didn't have that year that you're getting bill for. You call the state department of doctors and there is no listing of the doctor. Noone has heard of him. You call the hospital where u supposedly had the surgery and they redirect you to another city where the bills are handle. They see no record of u having this surgery but they find the doctor. The doctor doesn't work with them anymore. Now u have a bill on your credit report basically from no where. Your credit is getting messed up now u can't get any credit cards, student loans, get a car, etc etc. Who is the blame? The insurance company for not covering what they were suppose to cover in the first place? Meaning u shouldn't have never had a bill from jump. The hospital for bogus paper work or the doctor?

let me add this, if you aren't gonna take the question serious, do not reply. are u that lame to need 2 pts that don't get u anything. What it will get u though, is reported for not answering the question. Thats against the yahoo answer rules. Thank u, jerk

thanks to the ppl who actually helped.

i kinda ran out of characters to explain the rest. no one can find the documents on this surgery so what now? even the hospital. Then it was something else on the bills when we called the hospital billing directory. It said total 7000 dollars. I don't kno if thats how much money we've spent or we owed. It can't be how much we owed because my mom's insurance is suppose to cover everything. So what do I do from that? Isn't that the insurance company's fault?

im sorry if i didn't give enough details. I don't know the doctor. Thats the whole point. There aren't even records of him treating me at all but for some reason, he's on my credit report. They can't even track him down. Also, I would like to add that even if I did know the doctor, I shouldn't have gotten a bill in the first place. My mom's insurance is suppose to cover my bills 100%. We haven't gotten any documents from this doctor but other doctors that we paid off that I have had surgery from. Not him though, he's not even located in this area.

Answer 1

Go to

www.annualcreditreport.com

You are entitled to free credit reports once a year from all three agencies.

Get your report and appeal the information as incorrect on all three. They have to reverify what you claim is incorrect. That is how to get it removed.

Answer 2

You say that youre getting a bill for a surgery that you didn't get THAT year in which you were billed. Does that mean you didn't have the surgery or that you're being billed in another year for a surgery you had. If the insurance company was supposed to pay the bill then contact them and have take care of the matter. If it is a bogus bill then contact the biller, in writing, explaining the situation. In either case contact the 3 credit agencies, the addresses you should have received upon the declination of your credit card app. and ask for a copy of you're credit report. Tell them the situation once you receive a copy of your report(s). Explain that this is an invalid charge and have some documentation to prove it. If this is really a bogus charge then they should be able to clear your record, albeit, in many weeks or months. If the charge is real then contact the insurance agency involved and resubmit the bill for payment. They are liable if this is a legitamate charge.
If you feel that you must sue someone then good luck, because I'm sure their lawyers are much more expensive than your's!

Answer 3

I'm not sure I have enough information, but it seems you did know this doctor and you did treat with him. Regardless of whether you had a particular surgery or not, you must have gotten some collections calls on this bill if they had enough of your personal information to make a credit report on you. If this is the case, you should have disputed or resolved the charge then. If you ignored it because you felt it wasn't your charge, the hospital wouldn't know that . . . they just figure you're skipping out on a legitimate debt.

If the charge is absolutely not yours and the hospital was in error (and apparently you say they admit this cost shouldn't have been billed to you), then you should direct the hospital to expunge the bad credit report, and follow up your request in writing If the hospital doesn't remove the bad credit report, then you can sue the hospital for negligence and for any actual damages you may have suffered. Those actual damages will have to be proven, you can't speculate on damages. You may allege general damages (non-specific), but, again, I don't have enough information -- I don't know how much your credit report says you owe in unpaid bills.

Unless the doctor is a total fraud who dreams up bogus bills for his patients, forget about suing the doctor.

If your case is worth less than $25,000, no lawyer will take this case on a contingency basis. And you couldn't afford the hourly rate. You could file the claim yourself in small claims court against the hospital (or whoever falsely reported your bad credit), but again, you have to be able to prove your damages. Saying "I coulda gotten a car" or student loan or whatever is not going to work.

My advise is to have the hospital clear up your bad credit report and start from there. Litigation is no fun, takes up a lot of time and money, and if you sue a hospital, they've got $500.00 an hour lawyers for stuff like this.

Good luck.

Answer 4

Let me answer your question first, since everyone seems to have skipped over it.

At this point there is nobody you can sue. Unless you can prove that the creditor posted this to your credit report with "malicious" intent, you have nobody to sue.

Before you can sue anyone, you have to follow the procedure in the Fair Credit Reporting Act. Michael I's instructions are perfect.

Ignore Kevis advice. You must contact both the creditor and the credit bureau. You MUST follow the procedure.

Now, if after you have sent these letters out and waited the prescribed amount of time, they still haven't removed this from your records, you can THEN sue both the creditor and the credit bureau.

And this smoke they are blowing at you about not knowing who the doctor/hospital was. Not your problem. The person who posted this to your history is the one on the hook.

Hope this helps. Contact me if you need more info.

Answer 5

Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, both the CRA and the information provider have responsibilities for correcting inaccurate or incomplete information in your report. To protect all your rights under this law, contact both the CRA and the information provider.

First, tell the CRA in writing what information you believe is inaccurate. CRAs must reinvestigate the items in question - usually within 30 days -- unless they consider your dispute frivolous. They also must forward all relevant data you provide about the dispute to the information provider. After the information provider receives notice of a dispute from the CRA, it must investigate, review all relevant information provided by the CRA, and report the results to the CRA. If the information provider finds the disputed information to be inaccurate, it must notify all nationwide CRAs so that they can correct this information in your file.

When the reinvestigation is complete, the CRA must give you the written results and a free copy of your report if the dispute results in a change. If an item is changed or removed, the CRA cannot put the disputed information back in your file unless the information provider verifies its accuracy and completeness, and the CRA gives you a written notice that includes the name, address, and phone number of the provider.

Second, tell the creditor or other information provider in writing that you dispute an item. Many providers specify an address for disputes. If the provider then reports the item to any CRA, it must include a notice of your dispute. In addition, if you are correct -- that is, if the information is inaccurate -- the information provider may not use it again.

Answer 6

I have 7 years in the credit industry and suggest the following:

Write your credit bureau and dispute the debt. They also need to verify its accuracy OR remove it. From what you have said, they appear to be required to remove it. Contrary to what has been written above, they must verify the debt themselves and will not verify the debt without making the necessary calls to do so.

If they verify it, they must provide you with the contact information of who they contacted to verify the debt.

You can sue if this debt has caused you damage. Getting denied by a credit card company hardly seems like an event worthy of a lawsuit, no?

If you find out who verifies the debt, write a short, consise letter to them. You've said way too much here. Also, write a complaint to the ftc (www.ftc.gov) and your state's attorney general. But first have all your info in order and know exactly who is claiming the charge.

Unfortuntaly, these things take a lot of time to clear up. See a lawyer if you think you have a case to sue.

Answer 7

In my understanding of your cryptic question, you are asking why gay rights groups don't stop suing the catholic church for blaming pedophilic actions on gays. First of all, I've never heard of a time where anyone can sue someone over an opinion. Though, an indirect answer to your question is that religion isn't the law, nor should it be part of the law due to it's nature ( for one, some religions say that selling your daughter is ok, if that was ok by law because of religion, what would you say? ). Pedophiles and gay people are two VERY different things.

Answer 8

Do what I did: write directly to the collection agency. Do not, I repeat do not, contact the credit reporting agencies. All they have to do is verify that your name and the amount is correct. Of course they will say it is yours! That method is useless. They only have to "verify" the information - not "validate" it (prove it's yours).

Here is what you do: Under the FCRA, anyone who puts a collection on your report must provide ORIGINAL DOCUMENTS ("validation") that this is YOUR debt. If they cannot provide the original documents, they cannot pursue collecting it and will have to remove it from your reports.

Write a letter to the CA like this:

"Under the FCRA, I dispute this debt and your claim. Please provide proof this debt is mine by sending me original copies of the charges. If you cannot, you must remove these items from my credit report. Please note that I have copied the BBB as you are violating my rights by listing a debt I have never had on my credit report."

Note that I mentioned the BBB in the letter. Send them a copy. You need the Better Business Bureau (BBB) on your side here. In my case, the BBB got a collection removed in weeks that had taken me years of writing letters and arguing with the credit bureaus that this was "not mine". It works.

Let me add: contacting the hospital or doctor at this point is fruitless. Once an account goes to a collection agency it is off their books, and they would probably tell you to call the "accounting department" who also won't know what to do. They cannot remove something a collection agency put on your credit! Follow my instructions and you can have it removed.

Answer 9

You are a victim of identity theft. Contact a lawyer and a credit councelor. Inform your credit card company that you dispute the accuracy of the charges. If you prove the bills are bogus, you might be able to get the credit agencies to remove them from your record.

There might be some useful information on www.annualcreditreport.com.

Answer 10

dispute to all three reporting agencies the creditor will have 30 days to forward the information or it will fall off your report by default and if they do rebuttle you can write a 150 word paragraph stating the reasons you dont agree with this... i have had smiliar situations not with med bills but if this doc is a phony then he wont rebuttle... and if he does ask for the medial doc's you signed and see if he can provide them have a third party analize the signiture and you are in business and if it is forgery then you have a case right there

Answer 11

Contact all 3 reporting bureaus and dispute the information. Explain exactly what you did here and they will remove it from your report. 70% of people have a reporting inaccuracy on their credit report.

There isnt anyone to sue though...once you have the inaccuracy removed your score will rebound... I would suggest that you get a secured credit card to start building up your credit history.

Best of luck