Can creditors report a single TL multiple times to ding you harder for it?

[marbol]

What is the name of your state? TX

I have several collection accounts for a medical incident. I cann't afford to pay them off right now. They are a hospital.

But they are reporting this one single incident as 4 seperate things. All have the same date of service - and all were for one admission to the hospital. It does NOT include amounts owing to anesthesiologists, or test facilities - those are seperate and reported seperately.

However, the hospital has broken apart this one bill into 4 seperate things - seperate bills and report them all seperately to the credit reporting agency.

Is this legal under FCRA? If so, does that mean if I owe 5000 dollars on a car and can't pay it, they can put 5 seperate 1000 dollar dings on my credit report?

Is there anthing I can do to get them to consolidate it onto one reporting trade line?

Thanks

 

[whatehva]

Hi, I don't have any legal advice for you, but, I do work for an insurance company, so, I see a LOT of how providers bill incorrectly.

I can't tell you exactly why there are different marks from the same facility, b/c I can't look at the bill or your credit report. There is a chance that it's "user-error" with the entering of the bill. Believe it or not (LOL), a lot of the people who work in the offices do not know what they're doing. There are times that charges are added or subtracted from bills, and the "corrected" bill (or claim) is submitted. They all have different amounts, different charges, etc. Sometimes, they are called "late charges" or "additional charges", and instead of sending in a "corrected" claim, they are entered onto 3 or 4 (I've seen up to 10 claims for the same stay with all different amounts). They are also good at sending in "duplicate" claims. This could be what happened. Bad record keeping.

Your best bet (and I know you don't want to do this- I have the same issue with medical bills), is to contact the hospital and flat out ask them what they are billing the separate amounts for. You can also make $1 payments on these accounts and as long as you're paying on them, they will remain active and in good standing. (I know I'm going to get flack for that, but, it is true, no matter what yall debt collectors say). Now that it's (I'm guessing) at a collection agency, the hospital will most likely refer you back to them, but, you should contact the original debtor to verify that their records are correct.

Here's a side story--I spent some time in the hospital last year. I owe $500 for my coinsurance. I know I owe it, and am working on clearing up my credit, so it will be paid. The collection agency has contacted me to tell me that I owe $800. 3 separate bills. The last time they called, I asked them for copies of my imaginary bills that they had supposedly sent several times. I have yet to receive them. I have also told them that I will not be dealing with them, that I will only deal with the original debtor. It kinda ticked her off, and she told me that the hospital will most likely refer me back to them. I told her that was fine, I would when they informed me that they would not take my money.

Have I heard back from them? No. Have I received the bills? No.
If I do...I will be calling the facility to verify that the 3 separate bills are correct.

Good luck.