Medical Collections on Son's Credit Report

[nojusticehere]

Good morning everyone. I have a question about what I feel is somewhat complicated. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Two years ago, when my son was on my insurance, and my dependent under the age of 18, I took him to the doctor. He now has a collection account on "his" report. This is the scenario... The insurance was filed, and paid. Then the doctor's office filed another claim for the same visit, which was denied and sent they sent it to collections. During the last two years he, nor I, ever received any notice/billing for this from either the doctor's office or collections. Now here's the problem. This medical group as since been desolved, and the company is being investigated for insurance fraud and medicare fraud for double claims and then presenting the "unpaid" insurance/bills to collectors. The individual at the dr's office has had previous issues like this and is also under investigation. He gets around this by opening dr's offices under an assumed name and presenting a "Doctor" as the CEO, etc. I have since been in touch with my insurance provider and found they did indeed file 2 claims. 1 paid, the other denied. Now, the collections is only for $56, but it's on my son's report, and at present is unable to deal with this because he at school in the Navy, etc. I contacted the collection company, IC Systems out of St. Paul Minn. Of course they refused to talk with me, or even try to settle this because my son is now over 18 and they won't discuss it with me because I'm not him.

I don't even care about paying the stupid $56, so small, but I'd like to, along with my son, get this off his file. He has disputed the account on his credit files, but we all know how collectors are. It seems odd to me that I was the primary insurance holder at the time, and he was under 18. What to do???

[HHM]

Has he tried simply filing a dispute with the Credit reporting agencies.

[nojusticehere]

Yes, he has done that, no response yet, still waiting. If this doesn't work, what other means can he use? This hould have never been reported in the first place. It's fraud!

[HHM]

There are some things that can be done, but the CA is correct, now that your son is over 18, anything that can be done, has to be done by him (or at least, seemingly by him). In any event, let the CRA dispute process run it's course...when did he dispute? After a dispute is received by the CRA, they turn around and notify the creditor, the creditor has 30 days to verify the debt. If you are still within that time frame, let the dispute process run its course.

The next step would be to demand verification and validation of the debt under the FDCPA (there should be some forum threads that talk about how to do that).

In the mean time, you should try to get a copy of whatever document the insurance company has that shows the doctor has been paid and that the doctor double billed.

[cathywhite4495]

The same thing happened to my brother. He was also under 18 when he had the services. He was covered by insurance but there was some mix-up somewhere and part of the bill wasn't paid. They tried to collect from my parents and when that didn't work they went after my brother. He was 19 at the time and they (collection agency) outright lied to him - I'm sure you're all surprised by that. He had already paid the bill when he told me about it. I hope you and your son fight this and get it off his report. It must be a technique of theirs and it's wrong! Good luck!