bill in collection because provider failed to submit to insurance

[Loan Tran]

Jurisdiction

Georgia

Hi, so I must admit I didn't do a very good job at monitoring my credit report. Just last week I notice in creditkarma, there was a medical bill in collection in my transunion report that I didn't know about. I called the original healthcare provider to find out. Apparently back in june 2016, I had an xray done and my image was sent to the radiologist of this place to read (I was never physically at this location). However, they didn't have my insurance information (but I was insured at that time) and somehow got my old address on file so they apparently sent my bills there. They however had my correct phone number and claimed that they called me but I swear I didn't receive any phone call. Long story short I never knew about them and they sent my bill to collection and it looked like the collection case was opened in Oct 2017 with transunion. The radiology place told me it was too late for them to bill my insurance plus they are not able to do anything else because my bill is now in collection. I called the collection agency and all they wanted was their money, however, I really disagree with their practice and from reading the reviews of the place, they seem to do this a lot to people, just sending them to collection then dinging their credit reports without any communications at all.

There is something really off about them. I mean I do move around a lot but have always received my bills and paid them accordingly.

So right now I am wondering what is the best course of action to take? It's a $300 bill so it's not exactly small change for me and I am not trying to play victim (my fault for failing to notice my credit report) so I am just trying to find the best way to remedy this. If this was just me I would think it's just an isolated incident but the reviews suggested that they have been doing this to a lot of people.

Many thanks for reading my lengthy post!

 

[adjusterjack]

$300. Pay it and get on with your life.

It's a common practice with medical providers to send the bill to collections. They generally use outside billing companies that handle so much money for many providers that they don't really give a crap about trying to contact people.

You don't have any leverage because there is nothing illegal about what happened to you.

It's a good argument for following up with your medical providers within a week or two after the service, find out who was involved and make sure you know what's been billed and where.

Yes, it's a lot of work and, in a perfect world, you shouldn't have to do. But it's not a perfect world and self preservation is nobody's business but your own.

 

[PayrollHRGuy]

Every medical insurance provider in the country sends an Explanation of Benefits (EOB) on a regular basis. When you didn't see it on your EOB you should have contacted the provider.