medical bill

First, I live in Florida. Over a year ago, my daughter was in a car accident and was injured. We have an HMO and we took her to her primary care physician who in turn referred her to this particular orthopedic. My auto insurance company paid 80%. PIP is (and has been for some time) exhausted in this particular case. We were never billed by the doctor and I know that the statute of limitations has not expired. Witout ever having received a bill or any warning, we were contacted by a collection agency looking for not only the balance (20%) but a fee of 30% on top of the balance. We say that our medical insurance (which the doctor had all this information) should have been or should be billed for that. Can the doctor turn us over to a collection agency without ever having sent us a bill? Can the collection agency charge us 30% of the balance? What is our best course of action (the balance is around $165.00 which is not much...but its the principle! And we have had excellent credit up to now) Can I in turn sue the Doctor in small claims court for ruining my credit. Remember, we were never billed so how could I have had an opportunity to pay him. Thanks for your help.

Based on what you say here, you could file suit against him (or at least threaten to do so) in small claims court or in regular court; filing in small claims court is easier and requires no attorney...you could try to collect all of the costs and damages that you suffered due to his behavior... You may also report him to your state attorney general's office.

I had the same experience, in a way. I was actually turned in to a collection agency for a medical bill of only $10 which I never received a bill for. I paid it and included a letter about having not been billed for the collection amount in the first place. However, the thing I would like to let you know about is that just because you've been turned over to a collection agency doesn't mean that the agency will report it to the credit bureaus. On my credit report, it doesn't show anything about the collection. My ex has had three collection accounts, but none of these show up on his, either, and his were for considerable amounts. If you choose to go to small claims, though, the pressure would be mainly on him to show that you were notified of the past due amount for him to have reasonably turned it over to a collection agency.

good points!

Thank you so much for the information! I am in a similar situation, I went to the ER, paid my co-pay and never recieved any additional bills. I live in WI and gave the hospital my current address, phone number, etc. I believe they even copied my ID with my parents' address on it. I found the amount on my credit report but never recieved a bill from the collection agency or "radiologist" who originated the bill. I sent a dispute letter to the CA and to the credit reporting agency, and got back the "initial contact" letter as well as a copy of a bill. It is $26 which I will pay, but I don't want it on my credit report since I would have paid it 5 months ago when the services were done had I got a bill from ANYONE! I am sending the "hippa" letter along with my check to the radiologist office, but what should my next steps be? I assume it will be "validated" by the credit reporting agency but who do I dispute with? It shouldn't be the patients fault that the office couldn't bill correctly, and i've already spent time and money sending all these letters certified. What should I do?