6 months ago my little girl had to go to the emergence room at the locale hospital. The hospital would not take payment at the time of the procedure. They billed me for the payment. The bill was not correct and I let the hospital and the insurance company come to an agreement. They did and I owe a $75 co pay. I pay the hospital the money. During the mean time they sent the bill off to the a third party billing collector (NCO group).
The 3rd party collector called me and said I owed them money. I explain to them that I did not. They ask me to send proof of the payment. I ask them to send me 37 cents for a stamp. They would not. I ask them for a toll free phone number to fax the paperwork. They did not have one. Once again I explain to them that I would not be spending any of my money to correct their mistake. I told them that they need to contact the hospital and ask if I owe any money. They explained that that was not the policy to do that and that them contacting the hospital was not going to happen. I ask for an email address to send the info they requested. Once again explaining the I was not going to spend any of my money to correct there mistake. The person that I was talking with did not have an email address. I was furious at this time. I told him by now it was not a matter of paying the bill, but it was a matter of principle. I was not in the wrong they were. I said that if there was not a free way for me to prove that I was right then I would not do it. They said they would turn me in to the credit bureaus. I told them to go ahead because I would rather spend 37 cent on a letter of proof to the credit bureaus than paying money to sending them the proof. Finally they gave me an email address of the superintends of the department.
I sent the information to them. I received no email back saying the account was now closed. So I called back, I was assured the account would be closed. 20 days later, another call from there automated caller saying I need to call. I called and the account still has not been taken care of. I call the hospital billing office and they said they would call NCO group and get them off my back. I called back the two days later and the women handling the account is out of the office, but it is still not cleared out. I have to spend more of my time correcting their mistake. My question are.
Is this common practice for these collecting agents?
Can they turn me it to the credit bureau with out proper justification, since I never had an account with them.?
What state agency deals with these people, so I can file a complaint?
Can I take them to small claims court to for the 4 hours of time I had to spend on this at my hourly wage?
The last one is a way to punish them for not double checking there information a simple phone call from them would have save all this time.
Thank you for you time
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