Help with paying a bill?

Hi. I'm having issues with a collections agency trying to collect on a bill I had last year. I was under my husbands (now ex husband) insurance. I think this cost should have been covered by the insurance.

Basically the problem boils down to this. I'm disabled. I recieve social security, which is barely enough to live on. I'm going to school so maybe one day I can go back to work. When I'm done paying all my nescessities, I don't have very much left over at the end. I have to pay for gas to get to school, school supplies, my rent, and food. I'm lucky if I have 20 dollars left at the end of the month. Can anyone suggest a way I can get these people to understand this? I do the best I can with what I've got.

Oh yeah, you leave me a rude comment, I'm gonna report you. Be forewarned.

OK, you're looking at two different issues here.

A medical service is one issue, between you and the provider. Sure, they bill the insurance company (most of the time) as a convenience, but they aren't OBLIGATED to make sure the insurance company pays.

You are. Or rather, the policy holder is.

Then there's a seperate deal between you and the insurance company, regarding payment. You HAVE TO keep on top of your bills and which ones the insurance company is paying. It's YOUR obligation.

SO. If I were you. I'd call the insurance company, and see if they ever received the bill. If they never did, I'd ask the doc to resubmit it, and if they won't, ask the insurance company to mail you a claim form, and YOU can submit it. Unfortunately, for "reimbursement", you need to submit a paid receipt. So that might be a bit tricky.

If the insurance company received it, maybe they lost it, or maybe they paid it, in which case you need the "explanation of benefits" statement, so you can show the collection agency that it HAS been paid.

Otherwise, well, there's nothing to "get them to understand". You owe money for the service. If you can't get it cleaned up one way, it will keep getting sold to other collection agencies, and they can try to collect from you, well, forever, until the debt is paid.

Keep in mind, collection agents are blood-sucking pirhannas. THEY DON'T CARE. They will do their best to harass and intimidate you into sending them money. There's no convincing them of ANYTHING else. That's just what they do.

If you think the cost should have been covered by insurance, then you need to find out whether or not the claim was ever billed to the insurance company. The collection agency isn't likely to help you investigate this - they really don't care one way or the other if the money is owed by the insurance company.

You'll likely need to contact the provider of the services and the insurance company. Find out if the claim was ever even sent to your insurer at the time. (And the fact that its your now ex-husband's policy is irrelevant...if you had coverage for the services under the policy on the date services were rendered, then it should still be covered.)

If the claim was never billed, you need to make sure that the insurer receives a copy of the bill. (And hopefully its not outside the filing limit...most commonly, there are 12 months to file a claim under an insurance policy, but different policies can have different filing limits. When you contact your insurer, ask them what the timely filing limit is on the policy you had in effect at the time of the services.)

If the claim *was* billed but not processed for some reason, you need to find out why. Were there coding problems on the bill that the provider should have corrected and resubmitted? Did your insurer reject the claim in error for some other reason? Was the service something that wasn't actually covered under that policy? Once you figure that out, you can then proceed from there.

The insurer can help you try to figure out if the bill is something that's your responsibility - it could be something that the provider was contractually obligated to write off, or it could be something that has actually already been paid by the insurance company. The provider of the services might also have additional information for you - unsuccessful attempts they may have made to submit the claim and/or contact you before you were sent to collections, etc.

Unfortunately, your financial situation won't make much difference to your insurance company. When it boils down to it, the service was either covered under your policy or it wasn't...whether or not you can comfortably afford the service doesn't matter. You might get a sympathetic customer service person on the other end of the line who goes out of their way to do some extra research for you on their end, but they still won't be able to influence the payment decision if its a claim that can't be paid...no matter how much they might feel for your situation.

I wouldn't even bother dealing with the collection agency at this point - tell them that you're going to attempt to resolve the debt with the provider of the services and that you'd prefer to deal with the provider directly. Once you resolve the situation with the medical provider (either by getting your insurer to pay or by working out payment arrangements with them), make sure they remove you from collections so you don't have to deal with those people any more.

First of all, please do not just forget about this and assume it will go away. Secondly, if it is something that should have been covered by insurance, there is no gray area, it either was or it wasn't. If you feel it should have been covered, contact the insurance company. Whether or not it was your Ex-husband's policy or not does not matter. If you were covered, then you have the right to talk to the company.

If it was not covered, then you should speak to the Hospital or doctors office that did whatever procedure this came from and have them help you apply for Medicare or Medicaid. It sounds like you should be able to qualify very easily. Other than that, if you pay even $5 a month to the company that sent you to collections, you should be OK and should not get bugged by the collections people any more.

This bill WILL need to be paid at some point or another.

Good luck to you!

Just put it out of your mind, and if they contact you again tell them they bought a bad debt and you are not going to pay it. If you can, block their number from calling you or tell them they are allowed to contact you only by mail.

There is no reason for you to pay it. It was his debt, it will be on your credit report but I've had much worse, and gotten through it.

You are going to school, looking towards your future, doing the best with what you've got, and it sounds like you are doing AWESOME! So, don't sweat the small stuff!

Just tell them to go ahead and garnish your check. They can't since it's a social security disability check, they will leave you alone.

kari,
hang in there,, take a deep breath, then smile,,you are trying,,that is more than some, have a great day
go to bendover.com
this is real, this is a copy of his letter, but go to his site and read everything
understand, you may still owe the money , but you can remove the collector from the picture, then you deal with the original creditor

[Your Name]
[Your Mailing Address]
[Your City/State/Zip]

Certified Mail, Return Receipt Requested # [Insert the Certified Mail Receipt Number here]

[Insert today's Date]

[Insert name of collection agent, if available]
[Insert name of collection agency]
[Insert address of collection agency]
[Insert City/State/Zip of collection agency]

REF: Account # [Insert either the original account number or the collection agency's account reference number here]

Dear [Insert name of debt collector calling--if available--here]:
You are hereby notified under provisions of Public Laws 95-109 and 99-361, also known as the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, that your services are no longer desired.
You and your organization must CEASE & DESIST all attempts to collect the above debt. Failure to comply with this law will result in my immediately filing a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission and the [Insert your home state here] Attorney General's office. I will pursue all criminal and civil claims against you and your company.

Let this letter also serve as your warning that I may utilize telephone recording devices in order to document any telephone conversations that we may have in the future.
Furthermore, if any negative information is placed on my credit bureau reports by your agency after receipt of this notice, this will cause me to file suit against you and your organization, both personally and corporately, to seek any and all legal remedies available to me by law.
Since it is my policy neither to recognize nor deal with collection agencies, I will settle this account with the original creditor.

Give this matter the attention it deserves!

And have a nice day.

[Sign your name here]

[Insert your name here]

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