Question
In May of 2008, I was in a fairly serious car accident, so all people in the car needed to go to the ER for a check-up. I was out of town, and therefore happened to be out-of-network for my insurance provider. The costs were high, even though I did not take an ambulance to the hospital, so I was not able to pay of of pocket while waiting for the insurance company to come through on the claim. To make matters worse, at that time,I was still under my parent's health plan, so much of the back and forth was completely out of my hands. In the end, my insurance company did come through on paying the claim, however, after recently checking my credit report, I realized that not one...but two collection agencies have submitted negative reports about me to the credit bureaus. Am I responsible for having these marks on my credit even though the payment was late because of the length of the claims process? Is there anything I can do to lessen this effect?
Answer
Hi Ashlei!
You can try calling the providers/Drs who gave you a negative rating to see if they will take it off your credit report. They are able to if they want to however it is not an easy task to do so. You have to call the corresponding collection agencies and ask them who the provider/Dr was then call them directly. Perhaps tell them that you want to buy a car or house perhaps they may help you.
Usually as long as a provider realizes that an insurance company will pay for the claim, they will hold off sending a patient to a collection agency. Unfortunately not in your case.
Good Luck!
Tricia
