Medical Bills And Disputes

When your credit report has wrong information about payments or non-payments, it is essential to dispute them. The non-payments, especially if they are related to medical bills, have a detrimental effect on the reports. Disputing them and setting them right should be a priority.

When you take out a medical insurance, you believe that your entire medical needs and payments are covered by the insurance. Since you are paying a premium, why should you now pay for any medical procedures or needs? But this is rarely true. If you read complaints, you will find that there are innumerable medical disputes, where the insurer was not aware of benefits covered by the insurance.

Many people make this mistake of not asking for an “explanation of benefits”. This leads to further complications. Sometimes, unless the person asks for the details outright, the insurance agent glosses over some of the points that may not be covered under the insurance. Later on, this leads to unpaid hospital and medical bills and finally being sent to collections.

To avoid this, ask the insurance company the details of the insurance. If you have zero authorization, then you need to know if you will be a co-payee under such circumstances. But when the unpaid bills have been sent to the collections, the first thing that you have to do is to dispute them.

Contact the collection agency with a letter and send a copy to the billing department of the hospital. Send one copy to the credit bureau also. Mention the insurance that you have taken out and request the hospital, collection agency and the credit bureau to verify the details of the debts. Enclose a copy of the insurance.

All bureaus are mandated under Federal laws to take action on the complaint within 30 days. If they do not respond to your complaint or letter, you can take a legal action against them. Meanwhile, if the collection agency calls you about this debt, while it is being disputed, you can explain that as it is being disputed, you will wait for the outcome of the dispute.

The key to resolving any dispute is persistence. You will have to follow up the dispute with the credit bureau, the insurance agency, the hospital and the collection agency till it finally gets removed from your credit report. The process may seem to be lengthy but it is well worth the effort.