Expert: Regan Shinski - 9/22/2009

Question
QUESTION: Hi I live in Salt Lake city Utah and have double medical coverage for both myself and husband,My question is I know in Utah the providers have 1 year in which to bill the Insurance. How long does a provider have to bill the patient? I have several bills coming out of the wood work I knew nothing of. and now their all at a collection agency,HELP!  Thanks in advance Arlette Butts

ANSWER: Hello Arlene:

Technically, I am not aware of anything that keeps the original creditor from billing you for services received within ANY time period.  They can keep trying to collect subject to certain restrictions I will discuss below.  I do not live in Utah and did not see any other state statute that applies, but please verify.  The statute of limitations is four years on verbal contract or account and six years on written contract in Utah.  That means they have no legal recourse to sue for the debt after that time.  Typically, this dates to the date the medical service was provided, not the date the account was turned over to collections.

There are some restrictions under the FDCPA law.  (This only applies to third-party collectors.)  They can only report to your credit bureaus for (basically) seven years from the date of medical service.  You can send them a cease and desist letter to stop the calls, they must abide.  They can only call from 8am to 9pm.  They must comply with the validation of the state provisions in the law.

What you do now depends on how old they are and how aggressive you want to be.  What I CAN tell you is that you should send a certified letter to the collection agency within the 30 days described in their initial letter they sent you.  You should ask for VALIDATION under the FDCPA.  You can also put in there to have all future communication on this issue be in writing to stop the calls.

If you did not receive or did not respond to those initial letter, there are options through credit repair.  Credit repair not only can remove some negative items on you credit but often leads to negotiated settlement or forgiveness of the debt itself.  As stated above, collection agencies must abide by the FDCPA.  Most collections agencies do not seem to be able to do that!  This violation of the law (your rights) becomes the basis for the removal of the bad items from your credit and a negotiated or forgiven debt.  It is difficult for me to give you advise via this forum without knowing more specific information.  Good credit repair is also a very customized process.  Good credit repair can also take advantage of certain HIPPA regulations in some cases.  However, I have been doing this for many, many years, so feel free to ask another question, drop me an e-mail, or give me a call if you want to discuss options you have.  

The worst thing you can do is wait or do nothing!

Regan
mbscompany@aim.com
813-454-1459

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: I would love to talk to you when time is available. My husband and I went to buy a truck his fico is around 690 to 700 and we have 1 debt account for a balance of 2300.00 and we pay monthly on it 167.00, and it shows never been late  for 2 years ok, and we make around 110,000 to 125,000  a year no kids and just a rental of 1095.00 a month. with that when we went to the Credit Union our credit report show 13 collection from 1 medical collection place from all kinds of medical providers. But they are either no file by the providers or forgotten the balance till years later these are all 2003 to 2006 bills, In the past I have had 2 accounts that I did pay cause I didn't have the time to fight so I paid the darn things now, more are appearing. Is it a good idea to pay them and forget them to get them off your credit? I work for workers comp. Rx for collections from insurance companies,hate to do be on the receiving end at home. grhhh Thanks so much, Arlette Butts

Answer
Hi Arlene:

It's a complex issue with medical collections.  Per your request, feel free to call me or send your contact information to my e-mail address below (don't send your private information through this forum, use my e-mail address.)

Regan
mbscompany@aim.com
813-454-1459