Question
What is the name of your state? Michigan
A doctor's a office sent me two bills yesterday for dates of service in 2001! It's called pre collections notice and the lady in the billing department said that it would be sent to collections if it was not paid in full in a months time.
To my recollection all the bills were settled a long time ago. Now I don't know if I a copy of the cancelled checks sent to the provider.
To make matters worse, I call the HMO (address in Colorado) of that time (i'm with a different insurer now) and ask her to pull the claim details and she said since the claims were from 2001, it was on microfilm and I would have to send the company $40 to even get details (total bill at, pat. responsibility, paid etc).
Is it legal to :
1. Send bills as old as 3 yrs.
2. HMO asking $40 to pull claim from 3 yrs. ago?
What would any of you do in such a case?
Frustrated.
Answer
What is the total of the bills?
Talk to a local attorney who specializes in debt/collections and who is also familiar with the Fair Debt Credit Act. There is probably a statute of limitations that may apply to enable you to completely avoid this debt and tell the creditor to go pound sand and stop bothering you.
Order a copy of your credit report to see if these amounts show as outstanding there.
If it does go to collections you will be able to negotiate them down into accepting a smaller amount. If attorney advises that statute of limitations does not apply, it would be worth it to me to spend the $40 to find out exactly what happened.
DANDY DON IN OKLAHOMA (tiekh@yahoo.com)