Is this a good strategy for dealing with medical collections?

Question

Ok after a ton of reading I've come up with the following plan for 3 medical charges. If anyone wants to tell me this is a bad idea, let 'er rip.. 2 of the 3 medical bills were for the same date of service and the other was for a separate date. The collection agency is not reporting the correct original dates to the big 3 (they report them as much more recent; probably the date they got involved).

- call the hospital and ask them if we can just pay it in full through them directly and have them delete any record of collections

If/when that doesn't work..
- dispute the dates first with all 3 authorities, ask for verification

Since I'm sure they will verify them..
- settle the medical bills with the collection agencies for the minimum amount since the credit score is trashed anyway and paid in full wouldn't help much

Also the hospital never offered charity care or a payment plan. Are they required to?

Thoughts?

Answer 1

You have a few things going on here. First the dates are violations know as RE-AGING and worth $1,000.00 per violation. You need to get a hard copy of each report directly through each CRA. Do not use a third party service. You need to pay for these reports. Free reports are bad and give the CRAs 45 days to verify your dispute not 30 like if you pay for the report.

If you have the hard reports with the inaccurate dates you can use this as leverage to get the collection agencies to work with you on your terms. Be willing to take them to small claims. Also look up the agency with the BBB.

Before you call the Collection Agency or try to validate, go to www.creditboards.com and read up on all the free information posted on medical collections. After that you will know exactly how to proceed.

www.creditboards.com is a free public information service, you wont be sold anything there.

Answer 2

Hospitals tend to only carry accounts for 3 months before turning over to a collection agency. The time to ask for charity or assistance was before the medical service or at least right after.

You can send the collection agency a request for validation. This includes proof that they own the debt and any signed contracts showing you owe the debt. They have 30 days to respond.

You're best bet now is to settle with the collector. You can probably settle for 50% to 75%. Lump sum payments get the best deals. Payment plans have to be short term. Get any settlement agreement in writing and don't give them access to your bank account. You can ask them to delete the item from your credit report.-- some will, some won't