AboutCreditwrench Expertise Debt Collections law, Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA), Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), federal law, how to properly answer court summons for collection cases, how to prepare federal cases against debt collectors, how to deal with debt collection phone calls.
Experience I've been an active consumer advocate for more than 40 years and have helped hundreds of people win cases against debt collectors as well as helping them defeat demands for summary judgment lodged against them by banks, debt collectors and defeat mortgage foreclosures and keep their homes.
Education/Credentials Paralegal courses for the most part. I have been teaching people how to deal with judgments, mortgage foreclosures and other such problems both on and off the internet for many, many years. I am a Richard Cornforth information provider ever since 2000 and worked with many other organizations and causes since 1980. I was Oklahoma State Chairman for the nationwide drive to defeat the Constitutional Convention which was proposed by various factions within our federal government such as the Council of State Governments and the National Organization of State Governors who were working hard to organize a Constitutional Convention to be held in 1995 for the purpose of rewriting our American Constitution to be more acceptable to the United Nations. I worked with Senator Charles Duke of Colorado and Senator Don Rogers of California and many others across the nation to keep them from getting the number of delegate states required to lawfully hold a Con-Con and we were successful. I have worked with many other legislative issues in Oklahoma and have always been very successful.
Question I hope you can help us. We live in Nebraska and are the kind of people who pay our bills. In February/March 2009 my husband had heart problems. So his doctor told him he would set up an appointment at our hospital to have a stress test done. We didn't know what all was going to be involved, which was fine, we also have insurance.
So my husband had the stress test done, etc. Then we started getting the bills, which we expected. But did not expect to see that the insurance company did not pay over $3000.00. So we called the hospital they said we did not get the one procedure pre-authorized, we told them how could we do that when we did not know what all was going to be done. They said they would resubmit some paperwork to our insurance company. We kept getting a bill from the hospital and nothing had changed, so we kept calling the hospital, and they kept telling us the same thing.
I happened to talk about this with someone who used to work for another hospital, and they explained to me that it was not our responsibility to get it pre-authorized, it was the hospital's and/or the doctor's to get this procedure pre-authorized and to call our insurance company.
So we called our insurance company and told them what was happening and we wanted to get this cleared up. They also told us it was not our responsibility to call and get it pre-authorized, and that they were waiting on the hospital and they would call them, and the insurance co. told us the dollar amount to pay the hospital that we owed at this time. And that's all we needed to do.
The statements kept coming in the mail and we would call both the hospital and the insurance company at least once a week to make sure this was being taking care of. When we call the hospital they say they are waiting on the insurance company and when we call the insurance company they say they are waiting on the hospital for paperwork still. Well here it is July 2009 and still nothing has changed except that the hospital sent us a letter saying even though the insurance did not pay it is our responsibility to pay the amount owed.
So we called the insurance company and they called the hospital again, while putting us on hold, and told us to only pay the small dollar amount they had told us prior to this day that we owed. Well I am very worried, because nothing is getting done. And also I was always told if I make any payments to any medical bill that we were legal, as long as we were making them every month. Is this still true?
So you are from Nebraska, eh? What town? I was born and raised in Seward County. Goehner to be exact. Maybe you know where that is. We used to be a pretty big family back in the old days but I don't think there are any Bauers left around there anymore. If there are I don't know about them. We do still have some family there from my mother's side of the family however. Ok. So you are having trouble with a hospital bill. And somebody fed you the nonsense that if you make some kind of payments every month they can't do anything about it. Wish I had a dollar for every time I have heard that old fairy tale. Now then, let's look at reality. Things will go on with nothing getting resolved for a little while and then the hospital will turn the account over to a 3rd party debt collector of some sort. Might be a collection agency or it might be a lawyer who will end up filing a lawsuit against you. Either way, it will end up in a lawsuit unless you pay up before that happens. If you have a home you might very well consider refinancing to get the funds to pay off what you owe. Lots of good folks make that very serious mistake. Others consider bankruptcy which is another extremely poor choice. But many people, including many Nebraskans are learning how to defend against debt collectors and win without ever hiring a lawyer to do it. Creditors have a right to be paid but people also have the right not to be abused in the process and debt collectors don't care one whit about your rights. They treat you like dirt from the start. It is up to you to learn how to teach them better manners. So what will you do? Raise the cash to pay up somehow even if it means mortgaging your home or other thing of value or getting a loan somehow and pay high interest rates or file bankruptcy or will you learn how to stand up and fight back? You tell me what you want to do.
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