Collection harassment.

Block the calls and throw out the letters . Do Not respond .

Do not pay one dime to the collections agency, because that verifies the claim as legitimate.

You have a right to tell them to stop calling and harrassing you/her, and by law they have to stop.

Keep a log of any calls after that, and let them know you have asked them to stop and each subsequent call will go toward the lawsuit you'll be filing. Then hang up.

Your aunt is dying, and the claim should die with her.

AT&T billed me after my mother passed away in Feb, for service in March. $70,52. I told them right off the bat I wasn't paying the bill for a deceased woman who no longer had a phone. Period. They sent the bill to collections, believe it or not, incurring an even larger bill for THEMSELVES in the process of trying to collect a paltry $70. I wrote the collection agency a letter and included a copy of moms death certificate, saying Shame On You for pursuing this matter. They wound up calling me about 12 more times and each time I'd block the number w/o answering (it was always a different number but the same area code). The calls finally stopped coming but my perfect credit score got a hit. Yawn. Who cares?

In 2008 I had neck surgery. The OR surgeons assistants ( a medical company) billed me $3500.00 after the surgery saying my insurance didn't cover their service. After many attempts to collect this payment from me, I finally sent them a letter stating that I never agreed to pay charges that were NOT covered under my insurance policy. That they should have checked BEFOREHAND if their service was covered and now would have to write off the charges as a result bc I WAS NOT PAYING. I copied the surgeon and my fictitious attorney, and that was the last I heard from these people.

That aunts provider did not submit claims on her behalf is NOT your problem or her problem! Tear up the bills and block the collection agency's numbers when they call. If you answer, tell them nobody lives there by that name. And, tell them what I told AT&T: try billing the cemetery, you'll have better luck!

It would have to be a very large amount of money for the collection company to go to Court. It cost money to go to court. I have to agree that your Aunt may have signed something saying she could be held responsible but I would want to see how that is worded. It may say for balances not paid by Insurance.

I agree with others. Your Aunt is in Hospice. She cannot pay. Tell them she suffers from dementia and has no assets/cannot pay the bill. Thereafter hang up on them.
None of this is your business and you can't do a thing about it, nor should you. If you assume a payment you may be considered to "take on" this debt. Ignore it.

Your Aunt no longer needs credit. No collection agency will take her to court for a judgement against her, and if they did it would simply put a lean on any assets such as a home, and debt would be paid upon sale.

Don't worry about this; it isn't your duty unless you have taken on financial POA for your Aunt.

EL, usually claims have a submission deadline. Whether submitted properly to insurance (including Medicare) or not, the patient signs that ultimately they will be responsible for any and all amounts for services rendered. Hence the ability to turn an unpaid bill over to collections. From a purely billing standpoint, your aunt is the responsible party.

BUT, while it is so very valiant that you want to help your aunt, technically the debt is non enforceable. There is limited options for the collections agency to actually get any money from a woman that is considered to have 6 months or less to live (the definition of being on hospice). There is a very small chance that the collections agency MIGHT pursue a claim against your aunt's estate, but even then, the chances of eventually getting money is limited. The collections agency's biggest "stick" is to ding one's credit rating. Does it matter to you or your aunt if her credit is dinged at this point?

Tell collections to stop calling as it is not yours.

This is the fault of the provider and they have to sort it out. They need to do whatever it takes to see if they can still bill Medicare and the supplement. In my opinion, you would only owe them what insurance does not cover.

When you get a collection call, you tell them that the provider has agreed they never billed insurance. Because of that, you feel its an error on the part of the provider, not Aunts unwillingness to pay. You then tell them that Aunt is on hospice and has no money and because of this, they are not to call her anymore. Since this has been going on for awhile, you need to talk to a supervisor not the person calling you. The person calling you works on commission so will do anything to get that commission, even going against FTC rules which are very stricted when it comes to collection agencies. Get the persons name and direct phone#.

You need to tell the provider to do whatever they need to to stop the collection company from calling ur Aunt. THEY need (I was told this by my insurance company)to straighten the problem out, because its their fault or write off the debt.

If you get nowhere, then u contact the FTC (Federal trade Commission) and put a claim in against the collection agency and maybe the provider.

Your Aunt should not pay for an error the provider made. I was a collector for companies collecting from customers. I was allowed to do things collection agencies aren't. At this point your Aunt owes nothing.