Although the cases described above sound like they might be bordering on fraud, it might just be possible that all the fault is not with the collection agency.
I have had some medical problems in the past year, and I am covered by Medicare. For those not familiar with Medicare, about 2 or 3 months after your treatment, they send you a "Summary" which tells you what the total bill was, how much they reduced it, how much they paid and how much you should be billed for. I normally wait until Medicare's Summary comes before paying any bill, since many times the original billing of the doctor, hospital, lab, etc. is off and I don't want to have to make adjustments later.
Anyway, I got a letter from a collection agency saying that I owed a bill that had been sent about 4 months previously, but never paid. I checked and it was listed on the Medicare Summary, but I couldn't find the original bill, even though I keep all bills together until they are paid. There was a name and phone number on the collection agency letter, so I called the woman and explained that I had never gotten the original bill, and normally do not pay bills that I don't receive. I asked her to have the doctor billing group to re-send the bill to me, which she said she would. I repeated this each month for 4 months, as I still hadn't gotten the bill, each time asking if she was sure they had my correct address. Finally, after 5 months the lady at the collection agency gave me the phone number of the billing group (which was un-listed) and I called them. It turned out it was the billing group's fault.
They were sending the bill to the wrong address. My address is similar to "1234 N. St. Joseph Avenue". (That is North
Saint Joseph Avenue.) I always use the "extended" 9-digit zip code since in my same
5-digit zip code, there is a North Street. These idiots were people who don't use more than 5 digits of zip code, and were sending all the bills to "1234 North St." No wonder I never got the bill!
