I received a letter in the mail from some dentist that their accountant is going to refer me to the sheriff. When I called to find out what it was about they told me that I owe a bill. I said okay well what is the name of your accountant so I can speak to him about it before you "turn me over to the law". She would not give me the name of account or any other information. I advised her that I didn't break the law criminally, and that I didn't bounce a check or anything like that. So what is this threat of the sheriff about. They told me it was the civil department (in other words they are going to sue me) they would refer it to.
I asked her to forward me my bill, what my insurance did not cover, where I signed to agree to pay what my insurance did not cover, and the date that I defaulted. She told me that I did not default yet...huh? I didn't get that part.
Was this the right thing to? I am eight months pregnant and I don't take threats with the law lighting...meaning that I am not going let them "scare" me into paying. Should I ask for any other paperwork? Get a paper trial?
They are just trying to scare you. They need to provide proof of bill. Do they show up on your credit report?
Yes, they might be scaring you. You should immediately pull out your credit report and find out whether the debt is listed in your report. If it is listed send them a debt validation letter by certified mail and if they validate your debt within 30 days of receipt of your letter, only then proceed forward to pay off the debt. Debt validation means that the creditor must send copies of all the outstanding bills. However, if the debt is not listed in your credit report, the creditor must send you bills in order to claim money from you and as long as your are not delinquent, the creditor cannot sue you to the court.
If this dentist office is close to you why not make a trip down and see what this is all about. Do also as Justin advises and check your credit report. I would still go down and get to the bottom of it before they do turn it into collections. I would also inform them that you never recieved any bills and that you are not happy with this office. I would also find a new dentist.
I would be walking through the door, imagine their faces when you show up. You don't need this stress right now.
Yep and just think how quickly they would get to the bottom of it and give you answers if the waiting room was full of patients.lol.
Hi TimmyV
Since you have received the letter from the OC, simply send a debt validation letter by certified mail and wait for 30 days for their response. Now in the meanwhile pull out your credit report to find out whether they has listed the debt in your credit report. If they have not listed it yet, then its OK. However, if they have listed it in your credit report, wait for their validation. If they can validate your debt, ask them for a pay for deletion agreement so that the listing gets removed from your report as soon as you pay back the debt.
I would still make that trip down to the dentists office. It could clear things up alot quicker when they have a lot of patients and do not want to let them hear anything negative about their office.
Will your insurance company back you on any of this, they only have so much time to do the billing and if it is a billable expense and they do not file the paperwork in a timely manner your insurance agency should be backing you on this.
I didn't think of that GN. Usually an insurance company will back you. I had an incident like this once but it was with a doc.s office. They weren't in network and had lied. My insurance company wouldn't cover it. I went down and threw a holy fit and thought I had taken care of the problem and never got anymore bills in the mail. I found out later that they reported it to the credit agency and it was on my record.