Medical bill -Debt Collector

Ulnar

Our child had a medical procedure a few years back, we believed it would be covered by health insurance after months of bouncing between the consultant and the insurance company we found ourselves not fully covered.

We were issued with consultants bill via their billing service provider.

The bill was paid over a year ago directly to the consultants private practice.

Cue six months later our child began to receive demand letters addressed to her from Stubbs Gazette threatening all manner of legal proceedings.

We contacted the billing company and firstly they ignored us and finally they confirmed that the payment was made, no apology, oversight etc.

No real response to our complaint.

Wondering if we have any options to complain further and hopefully receive a decent response??

MadDog76

Why not just let it go?

It was a clerical error on their part ........ it isn't a personal attack on your or your child so you shouldn't take it personally ....... don't lose any more sleep over it would be my advice.

slimjimmc

Who and what do you want to complain further about?
The consultant (who possibly failed to notify his billing service that the account was already settled)?
The billing service?


The error was rectified without any damage to your good standing. I suggest you forget it and move on.

L1011

slimjimmc wrote: »

Who and what do you want to complain further about?

If I was getting Stubbs letters due to someone else's cockup, I'd want a written apology from whoever was responsible to be honest. Total sledgehammer approach which does not happen by accident.

flutered

L1011 wrote: »

If I was getting Stubbs letters due to someone else's cockup, I'd want a written apology from whoever was responsible to be honest. Total sledgehammer approach which does not happen by accident.

plus 1,000

MadDog76

L1011 wrote: »

If I was getting Stubbs letters due to someone else's cockup, I'd want a written apology from whoever was responsible to be honest. Total sledgehammer approach which does not happen by accident.

You might want a written apology ......... but the fact that you wouldn't get one would only end up frustrating you.

Op, pick your battles ........ there's nothing to gain from letting this get to you.

Ken.

Could the doctor be in breach of data protection rules for passing on the name of a minor to a 3rd party?

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

ken wrote: »

Could the doctor be in breach of data protection rules for passing on the name of a minor to a 3rd party?

Without getting into details, No. This is not a Data Protection issue. Plus the data being of a minor is immaterial anyway,

Oral Surgeon

L1011 wrote: »

If I was getting Stubbs letters due to someone else's cockup, I'd want a written apology from whoever was responsible to be honest. Total sledgehammer approach which does not happen by accident.

if the bill was paid then there would be no need for any of this.... i wouldn't get all high and mighty about "my rights" and all that when a guy who did a job was being refused payment

Ulnar

Oral Surgeon wrote: »

if the bill was paid then there would be no need for any of this.... i wouldn't get all high and mighty about "my rights" and all that when a guy who did a job was being refused payment

Consultant billed us for two procedures, one performed on my child and one performed on another child, billed the insurance company for both procedures, hence the bouncing back between the two trying to ascertain which bill was for us.

We had no issue paying the bill if the insurance company didn't, we simply wanted to pay the correct bill for our kid.

As for getting high and mighty are you kidding me??

The consultant got fully paid in a timely manner, considering they messed up the billing to start with. Secondly they failed to inform their billing company payment was made, the billing company then gave my kids details to a third party.

These guys wrote a letter directly to my kid threatening legal proceedings etc.

Came home from holiday to find slips from postman re missed collection of letters, collect at depot. As it was our child's birthday when we were away, we automatically assumed, hey these letters addressed to her are cards/gifts...... Nope my kid got 2 demand letters from this 3rd party threatening legal proceedings etc one letter dated my kids birthday, I mean come friggin on!

How hard is it to friggin apologise when you've cocked up?

Ulnar

slimjimmc wrote: »

Who and what do you want to complain further about?
The consultant (who possibly failed to notify his billing service that the account was already settled)?
The billing service?


The error was rectified without any damage to your good standing. I suggest you forget it and move on.

Our complaint was ignored, it's not hard to give an apology when you've messed up.

Perhaps if they took note of there mistake/error it would be less inclined to happen again.

Bit of customer service isn't that much to ask for.

Cheers

Oral Surgeon

Ulnar wrote: »

Our child had a medical procedure a few years back, we believed it would be covered by health insurance after months of bouncing between the consultant and the insurance company we found ourselves not fully covered.

We were issued with consultants bill via their billing service provider.

The bill was paid over a year ago directly to the consultants private practice.

Cue six months later our child began to receive demand letters addressed to her from Stubbs Gazette threatening all manner of legal proceedings.

We contacted the billing company and firstly they ignored us and finally they confirmed that the payment was made, no apology, oversight etc.

No real response to our complaint.

Wondering if we have any options to complain further and hopefully receive a decent response??

Ulnar wrote: »

Consultant billed us for two procedures, one performed on my child and one performed on another child, billed the insurance company for both procedures, hence the bouncing back between the two trying to ascertain which bill was for us.

We had no issue paying the bill if the insurance company didn't, we simply wanted to pay the correct bill for our kid.

As for getting high and mighty are you kidding me??

The consultant got fully paid in a timely manner, considering they messed up the billing to start with. Secondly they failed to inform their billing company payment was made, the billing company then gave my kids details to a third party.

These guys wrote a letter directly to my kid threatening legal proceedings etc.

Came home from holiday to find slips from postman re missed collection of letters, collect at depot. As it was our child's birthday when we were away, we automatically assumed, hey these letters addressed to her are cards/gifts...... Nope my kid got 2 demand letters from this 3rd party threatening legal proceedings etc one letter dated my kids birthday, I mean come friggin on!

How hard is it to friggin apologise when you've cocked up?

Thanks for all that extra information that was not in the op. Don't be giving out to me about misinterpreting your situation when you have just rewritten the sequence of events!!

You said that the procedure was "a few years back" and the bill was paid "over a year ago". Do you think that this was paid in a "timely manner"??!!

Get over yourself

Ulnar

Oral Surgeon wrote: »

Thanks for all that extra information that was not in the op. Don't be giving out to me about misinterpreting your situation when you have just rewritten the sequence of events!!

You said that the procedure was "a few years back" and the bill was paid "over a year ago". Do you think that this was paid in a "timely manner"??!!

Get over yourself

Giving out to you? Jeez give it a rest

I didn't rewrite any sequence of events, I gave more details in response to your insult!

Procedure carried out in November 2013 billed paid April 2014, so paid over a year ago!! I do think that's a timely manner considering the delays weren't help by a blundering consultant.

Oral Surgeon

Ulnar wrote: »

Giving out to you? Jeez give it a rest

I didn't rewrite any sequence of events, I gave more details in response to your insult!

Procedure carried out in November 2013 billed paid April 2014, so paid over a year ago!! I do think that's a timely manner considering the delays weren't help by a blundering consultant.

I never insulted anyone.

Patients often think that THEIR insurance not paying is the consultants fault....

slimjimmc

@Oral Surgeon & @Ulnar cut out the sniping.

L1011

Oral Surgeon wrote: »

if the bill was paid then there would be no need for any of this.... i wouldn't get all high and mighty about "my rights" and all that when a guy who did a job was being refused payment

If you read the post, they were paid, and the Stubbs letter was a cockup. That isn't an automated or even realistically automateable process (having worked somewhere that uses this option rather a lot)

I would have little confidence that they hadn't sent info to a private credit rating agency and zero confidence that if they had that they corrected it either.

rubberdiddies

Is your child under 18? If so I believe the Stubbs Letter, if addressed to the child directly is irrelevant anyway as they cannot enter into a contract under the age of 18 as far as I'm aware

davo10

rubberdiddies wrote: »

Is your child under 18? If so I believe the Stubbs Letter, if addressed to the child directly is irrelevant anyway as they cannot enter into a contract under the age of 18 as far as I'm aware

Children under 16 cannot consent to any medical treatment, a parent/designated guardian must be nominated to provide consent. The bill though addressed to the child, is the respnicibility of the parent.