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Majority of debtors to US hospitals now people with health insurance
(www.theguardian.com)
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this post was submitted on 11 Jan 2024
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They don't actually send PHI to collections...
Who says they can't? Have you actually read all of the documentation you sign when you have a medical procedure?
Stop spreading misinformation. It's not against HIPPA for medical providers to disclose the barebones amount of to collections if they signed the notice of privavy practices
I already told you. This is misinformation, they request it from the hospital and it takes a few days to a week.
They already have the barebones amount of information that the hospital provided due to the privacy application you signed. If you request an itemized list to the agency, the hospital is able to provide it. You're trying to find a gotcha and doubling down on your misinformation which ultimately is your potential future problem and not mine. I'm just trying to protect others from your ignorance.
Yes. I have disputed medical debt and known others who have done it successfully. Literally requesting an itemized list is often followed up with an itemized list. Sometimes they dont care enough to request it especially since sometimes there can be a fee. But either way it's insanely weak advice and perpetuates misinformation. There are much better avenues to dispute the debt.
They already have the barebones amount of information that the hospital provided due to the privacy application you signed. If you request an itemized list to the agency, the hospital is able to provide it. You're trying to find a gotcha and doubling down on your misinformation which ultimately is your potential future problem and not mine. I'm just trying to protect others from your ignorance.
has your legal theory been tested in court?
A lot of it yes, it's a general guideline where-as the other information being provided is clear misinformation.
My information is cited from a previous collections agency worker as well as many people to back it's legitamacy up.
Reddit archive link doesn't function right now so I have to send the direct link, sorry: https://www.reddit.com/r/UnethicalLifeProTips/comments/hr6ccy/ulpt_how_to_dispute_medical_debt_the_right/
that read is though it's anecdotal. I was hoping that you could cite a case.
I'm not a lawyer. The source I provided is generally the best standard you'll find for this. Collection agencies know their limits because of the law and know not to challenge do not contact clauses. I'm not going to go research the exact cases though.
It's not generally even needed to get a lawyer at this point. You need a laywer if they breach your dispute claim or reach out to you after you give them a direct "do not contact me." These have been held up in court but also your dispute claim can fall. It's just super expensive for them to actually pursue it so they rarely do. I'm just providing the easiest way to avoid paying debt, not a guareneed way like the other person is giving false promises about.
If you're interested in law there have been cases about contractual changes where you cross out hospital agreements and change them you can look into. Generally changing your contract is honored if its a minor change and hospital staff agrees but if its a big change it wont be held up.
The Notice of Privacy Practices you sign allows them to share the barebones amount of information for debt
This is a pretty big misconcepion as well. When you ask for this per FDCPA (Fair Debt Collection Practices Act), it has to pause the collection process (stopping it from reporting to credit & stopping phone calls while they order it from the hospital), but that may be all it does. Once the IB is sent, collection can continue. It is not a guarenteed way to stop the debt.
If you want to stop the debt say "I DISPUTE the validity of this debt." The dispute word is very important here. On top of this also get the name of the agency and the person you're speaking with, ideally before the dispute word, in case they breach this violation you can sue. You can also sue if they affect your credit after saying you dispute it. It's very very very rare agencies will follow up with asking for money after using the dispute word because its often too resource intensive for them. After this tell them to not contact you by any means. They legally cannot contact you at this point.
I disagreed.
They can take from your paycheck, harm your credit score, summon you to court, ban you from certain hospitals if its medical debt, and more.