Collections agencies need to provide you with an itemized list of what you owe and to who.
If a hospital gives out this information, especially if they didn’t even try to collect it themselves, they have violated HIPPA.
Will a collections agency give you a document proving they vioated HIPPA? No. Do you owe debts on something w/o receipts? No.
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Is this actually true or just something that is technically but not effectively true?
Even a cursory Google proved this one isn’t just wrong, but super wrong.
Patients and their families are contacted by debt collectors about medical bills more than any other type of debt, and it commonly results in negative information appearing on credit records. In fact, in 2021, 43 million people had allegedly unpaid medical bills on their credit reports.
Almost certainly flatly untrue. Medical debt in the US goes to collections agencies all of the time. According to the CFPB, consumer credit debt from credit records totals around $88B USD. If this was some sly loophole, someone would have figured it out and won in court by now.
This seems like bad advice at best and actively harmful at worst.
People “win” and get medical debt dismissed all the fucking time. HIPPA doesn’t fuck around.
This is true. It can’t be sent to collections lol. When it’s sent to collections, it needs to be itemized. The collections agency that “purchases” your collections will require an itemization of what is owed.
Is this a “just trust me bro”, or do you have a reputable source to back up what you’re saying?
This is false. It can be sent to collections lol. When it’s sent to collections, it is not itemized. The collections agency that “purchases” your collections does not receive an itemized list of things you’re charged for, they just receive an amount.
Source: Personal experience. Lol
I would never pay a debt without information about what is owed. 0 chance that holds up. They just hope you’re not smart enough.
Not sure of the situation in the US but here in Switzerland collections companies are probably the shadiest bunch of tryhards you can find. They’ll straight up lie to you, bully you into paying stuff you don’t owe and there’s basically no real oversight. It’s quite a problem and our politicians seem unwilling to do anything and if you tell the people here that you need to do something to protect people from debt collect, they go the old shaming route.
All of that, keep in kind, in a ststem where I can go straight to the goverment, with basically no proof of anything, pay 40.- tell them how much I think someone once me and they will send that person a very stern worded letter comanding them to pay that, tell them why they should not pay it and if you don’t react or pay it lands before a court. All those things are also put into a register that new landlords and sometimes even employers wanna see from you. And if someone wrongfully sends you one of these or you actually pay them, they will still be in that register and fuck you over for the next 5 years.
So we don’t need debt collectors yet those cockroaches still rake in millions if not billions every year in what is basically extortion.
This is absolutely false information. Third party business associates are considered covered entities under the Privacy Rule. The hospital signs a contract with a collection agency and thus that business can now access your health information as an institute of the hospital. You don’t need to sign away your rights if it is considered an essential activity of the hospital, which billing and payments are. Also, it’s HIPAA.
And you aren’t being treated anywhere without signing a privacy HIPAA notice.
Asking a patient to sign away their HIPPA rights is illegal
Could you please add a “Why YSK:”? It’s rule #2. It’s also helpful for readability, and informs readers about the importance of the content. Thank you. :)
As everyone else has confirmed - the title is incorrect, medical debt absolutely can be sent to collections
What OP likely misunderstood is the practice of validating a debt - this is not a loophole to get out of paying your debts, this is a basic legal protection to prevent malicious collection agencies from fraudulently pursuing invalid debts. When you get a bill in the mail from a collections agency you can request that the agency validate the debt, and they will have to formally provide the following information before you are required to repay the debt:
- [collection agency’s] name and mailing address
- the name of the creditor you owe it to
- how much money you owe, written out to include interest, fees, payments, and credits
- what to do if you don’t think it’s your debt
- your debt collection rights, including your right to get information about the original creditor if you ask for it within 30 days of getting validation information from the collector
A collector has to give you “validation information” about the debt either when they first communicate with you or within five days of the first contact. The collector has to include the following
Federal Trade Commission - Consumer Advice - Debt collection FAQ
“the name of the creditor you owe it to” HIPPA Violation #1
This is why most hospitals and such have their own internal collections.
Good luck affecting my credit w/ an internal system
I’m pretty sure this isn’t true. I think there’s a time period before they can send to collections and they have to try and get it from you directly first, but don’t quote me on that.
I’ve personally had a medical debt sent to collections on me after they sent the bill to the wrong address repeatedly.
Where are you going where you aren’t required to sign a financial disclosure allowing for the relevant information to be sent to whatever service is used to collect payment? I haven’t been to a single doctor’s office, urgent care, or hospital in several years that didn’t require me signing a form consenting to that.
Collections also doesn’t need to provide an itemized list of every detail you owe for, not in the way you’re implying at least. They’re not about to say “you owe the hospital $20 for an aspirin.” They can, however, say “you owe [this hospital] [this dollar amount] for services on [this date].” The itemization they’re required to give is the current debt, any fees and interest, and any payments or credits made on it. That’s straight from CFPB.
I’ve never signed away my HIPPA rights to a hospital lol
This is a great example why seeing downvoted is an important feature, people just upvote without fact checking
