Medical Bills and collection question

I have around $10K worth of medical bills incurred by my wife while she was on my insurance policy. I have insurance through my work and am the guarantor for my wife. She is now getting letters from collection agency requesting payments. I was under the impression that since I was the guarantor, I would be the one responsible for those bills and that the collections agencies would thus need to deal with me directly. My wife is in no emotional shape to deal with them so what can I do to make them stop contacting her. Can I assume her debts so they leave her alone or are they bound by law to contact me and me only since the insurance was under my name? Thanks for any advice you can provide.

Type up a "cease and desist" letter which basically tells them to stop all further contact. I would stop phone contact but you definitely want to keep getting accoutn statements, which you can intercept so your wife doesn't have to deal with them. Your wife should sign the letter and remember to send it certified w/ return receipt. After you get the return receipt back, I would contact the companies and let them know you are personally willing to pay on the debt. They might work out an agreement with you or they might refuse to discuss the accounts. Depending on location, make payments in person. That way you get a receipt and if you have an old statement, you can track how much is still owed on these accounts.

I have worked in collections for over 5 years. The Cease and Desist letter is the way to go, BUT make sure you send it cetified, so they have to sign for it. Otherwise, they will claim they never recieved it.