Collection harassment: How or why do we need to clear up their mistake?
My aunt was hospitalized in 2021, went to ER and hospital provider did not put the claims in to her insurance for the CT scans.
My aunt is hospice care at home, there are two aunts I am caregiving for at home.
The provider put my aunt that was hospitalized in 2021 in collections in 2022. The provider never looked to see if they filed those claims, they assumed they did and put aunt in collections that never was filed through the insurance company.
I called them and spent 4 hrs on the phone to find out that they never put the claim in to insurance.
Now, the provider cannot help because they said they wrote my aunt as they're procedure and now we have to speak to collections.
How or why do we need to clear up their mistake?
My aunt cannot pay this and there were no claims. Now the collection agency is harassing my aunt for payment.
What can we do to stop harrassment and not pay for the providers mistake?
If anyone could help me on how to proceed to help my aunt who is hospice care with dementia/alzheimer's.
She cannot fight for this so I have to do it on her behalf.
Meanwhile, this isn't your debt. It is your Aunt's debt and she no longer needs credit. Tell them she is in hospice care and has dementia and cannot speak with them.
If they continue to do it, be sure to make a log of every call and what time it came in. do not engage with them at all, and most important, DO NOT PAY ONE DIME toward the bill. If you do, that validates the charge, and you don’t want that.
When your aunt dies, if they call again, you can tell them she's deceased, she died with no money, and that should be the end of it. Again, they cannot harrass you for the money either.
Bottom line, however, is that you personally have no responsibility toward paying this bill. Do not undertake any payments whatsoever.
This is your aunts bill and no on else's, so when she dies it's no longer an issue, as they can't collect money from a dead woman. They'll have to just write it off as they do with many other as well.
And who cares if it messes up her credit now right? So just ignore them and put your time and energy into caring for those 2 aunts of yours.
And don't you dare pay that bill!!!