Collections Law
Subject: Physician payment
Question:
My daughter underwent surgery in January and I have been billed for the amount over the insurance coverage. I have paid one of the bills as I can afford, $200 here and $100 there. They are now threatening action against me. If I am attempting to pay the bill, can they turn the case over to collection agency?Answer:
Yes, they can and they probably will.You should probably hope they do and the quicker the better.
Don't make the mistake of paying or even admitting that you owe the bill. Don't even take a chance of resetting the statute of limitations that way. It started when you made your last payment to the hospital plus 30 days. It will stop tolling if and when they file a lawsuit to collect the money.
Here are your remedies or at least some of them.
First of all get yourself a good digital voice recorder and make sure it has a means of connecting it to your computer via the USB port.
Then get yourself a small black telephone recording controller from Radio Shack and be prepared to record all phone calls. Learn to record all calls. You can always erase those that you don't want to keep.
Be pepared to also make a written history of all calls to your home coming from the debt collector. Keep a record of the date, time, length of call, phone number showing up on caller I.D. and a short transcript of what was said.
When they call be certain that you tell them that you dispute the debt and demand that they validate the debt. Do it every time they call. Keep on demanding. Don't stop even though they try to tell you that the debt has already been validated. Often debt collectors will ask how you want them to validate the debt. The appropriate answer is "You are supposed to know how the debt must be validated. If you don't know go ask your boss and if your boss don't know either then you ought to go find a boss who does know."
Of course they will probably ask you if you are refusing to pay the debt or they will report you to the creditor as refusing to pay. Don't worry about it if they do.
As soon as you get their first dunning letter you should respond with a written demand for validation/dispute of the debt. Send it certified mail, return receipt requested. Their written demand for payment must be received by you within 5 days after their initial contact by any means including putting it on your credit reports.
Their initial contact letter must have a notice that you have 30 days to dispute the debt or any portion thereof. If it does not that is a violation of the FDCPA and is a valid cause of action against them in federal court.
There are many more violations that they can a maybe will commit and you should learn them all and keep careful records outlining each and every one. Your written record can become the history you will need to take them to federal court and sue them for those violations. Don't let that frighten you. It isn't all that difficult to do. You don't even need a lawyer to help you do it. Just learn how to do it yourself.
It is really the only hope you have to make them go away even if they end up getting a judgment against you.
The law was made to help you in the likely event that you are abused by a debt collector. The law is powerful and you can make it work for you. All you have to do is learn how and it isn't all that hard.
Bill Bauer
405-227-9423
405-684-9297 This number will change in a few days.
See my website at http://www.creditwrnech.com for much more information to help you.
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FDCPA
Before you go, stop and think about this. Its all about fighting poverty. Although we may go through our daily routines without realinzed it, the number of homeless people is growing rapidly. While many of the homeless have drug or alchol problems many are simply people who are homeless because of mortgage foreclosures and other financially related problems. I have armed you with a great deal of information about how to deal with debt collectors who can easily beat you out of your hard earned cash and make you the next victim of poverty. Help fight poverty (yours) by keeping your cash in your pocket. Creditwrench teaches you how to do exactly that.
This post is part of Blog Action Day 08 - Poverty
