anybody ever deal with a collections agency??

any advice or suggestions will be appreciated.

Comp case is all done {05} - but PT bills that were not submitted for review at the hearing/settlement { don't ask me why- atty/staff incompetence??} are now of course my responsibility. 5000.00!

Anyway-
My comp atty said "you can negotiate it down" and "you can rebill it to your pvt medical " NOT!

Now this collections ag says the hospital doesn't accept a lesser amount and they won't work out a payment plan??

i offered 3k to settle it- no go and no counter offer.

It is soo nuts that they expect an injured person to pay the full billing amount when we all know that the ins would have only paid a percentage of the total.

I'm thinking calling agency and offering a higher percentage to settle OR just let them sue me for it?? Or tell her that sueing will cost them more - time and money- so if we can nego a agreeable amount i will pay that.???
anyway i have til monday to decide!

HELP??anybody

Jo, I don't know what the complications are for billing the private insurance for your coverage,; but in our case, the secondary picked up everything that was not covered by workers comp.

When we had refusals for the first and second surgery, the secondary paid. Then when the w/c was favorable paid back.
Dr. Togut was out of network of at the time, but as he was the only Thoracic outlet surgeon, none of their "thoracic" doctors did the surgery, they preapproved and paid the bill when submitted.

BUT, I still have many times the w/c is not cooperative and treatments or medications would not be covered that the secondary had paid no questions, no problems.

First as a disabled dependant on our First Priority, then the medicare and then the green ACCESS card.

Even now that the max on the medicar part D was reached, there are no co-pays and meds, including brand duragesic are paid for.

The only other thought I have is I settled out a personal bill one time that was almost $5,000 for $1,500. It was a credit card that the kids ran way up and lots of fees on it.
I did receive a 1099 for it at the end of the year though.

I hope it is resolved soon and stress over it can be gone.
Di

Jo,

I have "been there done that" in regards to medical bills and collections and even small claims court. 99% of the bills were from my husbands cancer.

Some of them we were able to do a settlement - pay $3000 on a $5,500 bill, but when you do a settlement like that they want it to be paid in one lump sum (we put the $3000 on a credit card).

On others we were able to make a paymeny arrangment. One in particular was a $4,600 bill, and we negotiated to pay $100 a month for 50 months (yes that comes out to $5,000 total being paid, but we agreed to pay intrest if they agreed to let us make monthly payments).

So the basics is that if you want to pay less than the total bill you have to agree to pay it in one lump sum.... and if you want to be able to make monthly payments then you might have to agree to pay more than the total sum to cover intrest.

One thing to remember when dealing with collections agencies -- remind them that if they bring you to small claims court and if they win - they still don't get their money in a lump sum. When judges in small claims court make a ruling they do it in such a way that the loser (the person who has to pay) is ordered to pay $xx a week for xx weeks....

Your small claims court might be different, but when i talked to several people in different states, this is how their small claims court works (and how it works in my state too). It's only on Judge Judy that the ruling is a lump sum and not a payment plan.

Jo,

I got a bill from a collections agency for something I thought had been paid by insurance long time ago. We ignored several notices, not on purpose so much as just one of those things put off "til later" again and again as it meant going through the reams of ins. statements I have collected (too bad they're not decorative on the back side as I have enough to paper a good-size room ) and what with kids activities and homework, work (dh) and not feeling well (me), later just kept getting, well, ...later.

After I learned I won my case EVERY bit of paper related in any way to my condition had to be organized and looked at to determine out-of-pocket expenses, and I figured out that the ins. co had denied that claim - for $1200 I believe. But the latest notice we had from the collection agency offered to settle it and clear it from our record for $500, which we did as soon as we realized that it was still unpaid. I'm not sure if the collection agency you're dealing with will reduce the amt they're asking if you don't respond to the first few notices or not, you may not want to risk it, but they may be bluffing to see if they can get the whole amount, and will eventually settle for less.

My first thought was to put this back in the wc lawyer's lap, after all they are the one who did not present these bills at the correct time, so they should finish the job. At the very least the atty could call and try to get the fee lowered, he/she wd have more of an impact than "little people" like you and I against collection agency types - they're almost impossible to get anywhere with, really don't care about what your circumstances are, just out to collect what's owed, period.

If the wc lawyer won't lift a finger, call the insurance co and ask to speak to a manager - don't let the service reps put you off, just firmly repeat that you want to speak with a manager as they seem to play "keep-away". You only want to discuss your problem once, so save it for the manager, who is in a position to help. Ask if they can negotiate a lower fee with the hospital directly, or if not, with the collection agency. Ask what their usual reduction would be for these services - it may actually be against the law in your state for a Dr or hospital to deny a patient the SAME reduced rate they wd accept from that person's health insurance. You may want to check with a lawyer.

You may also want to call the hospital directly, or go in person to the billing department. Most hospitals I am familiar with accept monthly payments, you may find if you take $200 in and tell them you are able to pay X number of $ a month that they will be more than happy to accomodate you, and get the collection agency off your back. It's worth a try.

Best of luck! Try not to let it stress you too much (easier said than done) , do lots of body checks to check for and release tension in the neck and shoulders, and try to relax tonight with music and a warm bath. This too will pass!

(((hugs))), beth

thanks ladies,

I appealed the pvt med already - they sent a policy page showing - no $$ for any work comp injury?? and denied me.
plus the delays {by comp} pvt med gave me ** * about that and then still denied after I sent them proof of dates and hearings ect.

Atty had led me to believe that since it was a disputed claim settlement -{ Isn't that the same as denied??}
and denied sould be payable by pvt?? or am I totally wrong here?

anyway pvt med says since I got some money they aren't paying.


It's all so confusing -

the coll agent had been nice and helpful all along and now she is playing hard ball.
now this collections lady says "you knew you would have to pay this"

when i offered 3k to settle it she said she would check w/supervisor and she was back very quick - I think she didn't even do that.

anyway i don't mind paying a percentage and I have been holding a couple thou just in case - but no way did i expect to have to pay the full 5k!

Doesnt' a coll agency usually "buy" the account at a reduced amount from the "biller" and they get to keep any monies when the account is payed.

she tells me the biller doesn't settle or negotiate usually.
that sounds phony to me.

Due to new collections laws, some collections agencies get paid a flat fee to do the collections - and they get this flat fee whether or not they collect any money, and they get the flat fee no matter how many or how few collection accounts they are given.

So, a lot of times it is up to the original bill holder (hospital/doctor) and not the collections agency on whether or not to accept a settlement or payment plan...

Other collection agencies work on a precentage basis. They get paid 10% of whatever money they collect - so it's in their best intrest to collect the whole bill and not a smaller settlement offer.

Beth thanks I might just try the walk into hosp thing..
last time I tried to call hosp billing with questions - they said they cannot discuss it with me and would not respond to any other calls or messages..
makes me think they don't "own" the bill anymore

maybe I will just wait it out - i mean- home is pd for - and we never use credit any way so if they -as she mentioned -use any legal avenues to get the money ...
is that supposed to scare me??

jo...i haven't read all the replies.

but make sure that the hospital hasn't already written off the bills. check your credit with all reporting companies.

if this is a 3rd party billing company, then they "bought" this old written off claim for pennies on the dollar. they also have no legal responsibilty to report any payments that you make. and many times they have no legal right to try and collect.

have you ckecked out this billing company? i can pm you a site to see if they have had complaints. might even tell you if they are legit.

cool - they do have a website - seems legal and legit. but you know how that goes I suppose.
www.assetcollect.com

here is the site....it is awesome for checking out any company

http://ripoffreport.com/default.asp