Katsmeow
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
- Joined
- Jul 11, 2009
- Messages
- 5,308
Wonder the best way to handle this. DS has received a collections letter for an ambulance bill that is owed but for which he never received a bill. I actually attempted to pay this bill through Instamed earlier this year but the City (who runs the ambulance service) never accepted the payment. I don't mind paying the bill but I don't want to see DS's credit dinged when he never got a bill.
Here is what happened:
My adult son was in an auto accident last fall and was taken by ambulance to the hospital. At the time his drivers license was at our house as he had been staying with us. He was out of town at the time of the accident. The hospital I think had our old address. Since DS didn't have the money to cover the deductible we paid the bills not covered by insurance.
He never got a bill for any of that including for the ambulance. However, the insurer processed the claims. In January he tried to call the number the insurer had on the claim for the ambulance service but that number didn't work (didn't go to anyone who knew anything). The insurer offers payment of bills through Instamed. Basically you pay the provider through the portal on the insurer's website and then Instamed pays the provider. I did this for him on several claims where the insurer showed how much DS's share was. I also did this for the ambulance bill. This was in January.
Recently, Instamed returned the payment to the ambulance provider says that they never collected the payment. No bill has ever been received for this. If a bill was somehow sent to DS's old address (which is our old address) it should have been forwarded to our current address. I guess it is possible that the post office somehow failed to forward the bill or maybe the ambulance service sent it to some other incorrect address.
Today, DS received a collections notice from a collection company addressed to him at our address. So obviously someone figured out this address. I don't mind paying the bill but I am concerned that this will hurt his credit. Given that no bill was received and an attempt was made to pay this 4 months ago, I don't like to see that.
Options that I can think of are to
1. Pay the bill and not worry about the credit hit
2. Have him call the collection agency and say that he will pay if they first send a letter saying that they will remove any derogatory credit information and will not report it in the future
3. Dispute that the debt is delinquent to try to get the negative information removed assuming it is there. That wouldn't keep them from trying to report it in future though.
Anything else? He can't really dispute the debt and doesn't want to. What he wants to dispute is being delinquent.
Has anyone dealt with something like this?
Here is what happened:
My adult son was in an auto accident last fall and was taken by ambulance to the hospital. At the time his drivers license was at our house as he had been staying with us. He was out of town at the time of the accident. The hospital I think had our old address. Since DS didn't have the money to cover the deductible we paid the bills not covered by insurance.
He never got a bill for any of that including for the ambulance. However, the insurer processed the claims. In January he tried to call the number the insurer had on the claim for the ambulance service but that number didn't work (didn't go to anyone who knew anything). The insurer offers payment of bills through Instamed. Basically you pay the provider through the portal on the insurer's website and then Instamed pays the provider. I did this for him on several claims where the insurer showed how much DS's share was. I also did this for the ambulance bill. This was in January.
Recently, Instamed returned the payment to the ambulance provider says that they never collected the payment. No bill has ever been received for this. If a bill was somehow sent to DS's old address (which is our old address) it should have been forwarded to our current address. I guess it is possible that the post office somehow failed to forward the bill or maybe the ambulance service sent it to some other incorrect address.
Today, DS received a collections notice from a collection company addressed to him at our address. So obviously someone figured out this address. I don't mind paying the bill but I am concerned that this will hurt his credit. Given that no bill was received and an attempt was made to pay this 4 months ago, I don't like to see that.
Options that I can think of are to
1. Pay the bill and not worry about the credit hit
2. Have him call the collection agency and say that he will pay if they first send a letter saying that they will remove any derogatory credit information and will not report it in the future
3. Dispute that the debt is delinquent to try to get the negative information removed assuming it is there. That wouldn't keep them from trying to report it in future though.
Anything else? He can't really dispute the debt and doesn't want to. What he wants to dispute is being delinquent.
Has anyone dealt with something like this?