Challenged bill went to a collection ageny

[raqajasone]

My daughter (18) was informed that she was no longer covered by my insurance.
She went to the hospital and since the hospital had my insurance on file, they used it. The insurance paid the bill, then realized she was not covered, so they are billing us.
We told them and the collection agency that they should be billing my daughter, not us.
Right now, the collection agency is threatening to put this on our credit.

Advice? [We cannot afford to pay this bill right now]

 

[mightymoose]

You are correct. It was their oversight, not yours, and they should be going after your daughter who was the actual patient, not you.

Do not pay the bill. Do not promise to do anything. Deny responsibility. If the charge shows up on your credit report then dispute the charge.

At the same time, if you provide your daughter's contact info then you can help them along and get them off your back- but if you try to protect your daughter at all then it will take that much longer to get them to back down.

 

[raqajasone]

What can we do to prevent it from showing up on the credit report?

What can we do to stop them from harassing us about this bill. We have given the insurance company her contact information before it ever went into collections.

 

[mightymoose]

You cant do much to prevent them from making a report to the credit agency, but if it should show up on your credit then you should be able to have it removed fairly easily.
Read up on the Fair Credit Reporting Act... you might find some useful bits of information that you can use to persuade them not to make any such report against you... but they certainly can make these reports against your daughter if she fails to pay.

As for harassing phone calls- simply do not engage them on the telephone if they are a nuisance. Let them waste money sending you letters through the mail.

Does your daughter still live with you? If so then you can't do too much to stop them from calling. If she does not live with you and you have provided them her contact information, then perhaps you could make a police report for harassing phone calls. Typically an attempt to collect a debt is not considered a harassing call, but repeated calls to your residence when your daughter does not live there and they have been given her information might fit the profile.