Read the small print…
A couple of weeks ago I got a strange phone call from a man with an accent, a deep southern drawl. He said he was from a collection agency in Knoxville, Tennessee and that I had incurred a bill while recently visiting a hospital in the US and it needed to be paid – NOW!
I talked about the injury and the whole ordeal with the travel insurance here. I left the hospital with a bill that said ZERO. The insurance company I had purchased my travel insurance through had spoken directly with the hospitals administration while I was seeing the Doctor in the ER and it was dealt with.
Or so I thought…
After I threatened to call the RCMP on this man… which was after he threatened to ruin my credit for not paying this outstanding bill… I shouted more than I probably should have but still!! I kept asking him for proof of what he was telling me. I kept telling him that I left the hospital with a bill that said, “PAID”! He said this was an additional bill and that bills sometimes get lost in the mail. It seemed fishy to me. He wanted my credit card number so that we could settle this over the phone so he wouldn’t have to ruin my good credit score. I think I probably threatened to call the police again somewhere in here… so needless to say, I hung up on him and called my travel insurance company.
Apparently Doctors in the US sometimes bill separately from the hospitals but of course I don’t have proof of this because I never received a bill, neither did my travel insurance company. Now I have been trying to dig up the name of the hospital in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee so I can find out if this collection agency is telling the truth… that I have an outstanding bill somewhere out there, hanging over my perfect credit rating. Can a collection agency in the US ruin the credit of a Canadian?!
I am still very thankful I purchased travel insurance but I really would have wished I would have read the small print while at the hospital. Which is ironic as I was in there for an eye injury!
I’ll keep you posted on this.
I will let you know er doctors do bill different from the hospitals in the US. I lived in Ohio for 12 years and the ER trips i did make there, i have received seperate bills for those doctors who provided the care. How that’s right i don’t know- especially for those traveling they should have some way of incorporating it to make it easier. I do know also that the cell phone company i had in the US- verizon wireless was about to send my bill to collections too after moving out of the country, after i had been working at requesting my bill 3 to 4 times prior to actually receiving my bill and finding this out. They added late fees, and tacked on taxes to the late fee. I argued and threated to call the Better business bureau and anyone else i had to to get all the fees taken off because it was there fault for not sending me the bill in the first place and not even telling me the final total and a mailing address with my account number. I didn’t have the account number, after it closes, it changes to a number not a cell phone. I do know also that after trying to apply for a credit card here, i got rejected. I had 760-800 credit in the USA which was very good-excellent, and where in Canada, i have NO credit at all and that’s why i was rejected, is because i’ve built no credit in Canada, and my US credit score doesn’t matter. My question? How do you build credit unless someone will give you a chance, i just was applying for a bank credit card for $500.
Comment by melissa — December 8, 2009 @ 10:17 pm
WOW!! That would freak me out. It was good that you were smart and got that insurance…I will remember that next time I am travelling!!
Comment by Ruth @ Mom's Musings — December 9, 2009 @ 7:36 am