I can certainly identify with your situation. You work all of your life to do the right thing and wham, you get hit with something like this.
Whether or not "they" can send your bills to collection depends on what prior arrangements you made with the people the bills are from. My wife works for a Hospital. Normally they are pretty good to work things out with their people. Many people are on the "$50 a month for life" plan. If the bills are from the Physicians, surgeons and the multitude of others that play a part in surgeries, it may be a different story.
If you have not already done so, contact each of your creditors and see if you can negotiate terms with them to pay down your bills. In that process ask them to recall your bills from collection. Do this in writing as well as in person or on the phone. Be sure you send a copy to the collection agency as well. I am sure you know that what collection agencies do is "buy" bad accounts and then work to collect them, usually splitting whatever they get with the original creditor. Keep copies of all correspondence and when you get this all worked out, send a copy of your complete file to the Credit Bureaus and ask for a correction to your record, if this has been posted on your credit.
One other thing you need to check on is the terms your insurance company has with your healthcare provider. There are some Government insurances such as TriCare who have as part of their deal for the provider to accept as payment in full whatever they pay. Sometimes, a provider will bill the patient anyway but cannot legally force collection on that amount since they agreed in advance to accept the TriCare distribution as payment in full.
Good Luck with all of this.... just one more hurdle to cross...
Bill
posted by ltcolh
about 1 month ago
I agree. You need to talk to the Accts. dept. of the hospital. They may have no idea that you'd planned on paying in installments and the bill itself may have had warnings like, "This account is overdue." It's not too late to get it turned around. Then, you will want to write to the three credit agencies to get this taken off your record. It'll take some patience and letters out the wazoo but you'll find it'll come out all right in the end.
My problem resolved itself so nicely. I hate to admit it, I cried with relief. When I called the company that was sending my account to a collection agency, they noted my regular payments. The clerk I talked to told me that if I was continuing that payment schedule until the bill is paid in full (November of this year) that she would re-code my account "BP" (bill pay) and have it recalled from collections.
I didn't even have to ask for that to be done, but thanks to your thoughtful replies, I was prepared to.
Hopefully, the credit score I've worked so hard a single woman to earn is still unblemished.
