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馃拤馃REMOVE MEDICAL COLLECTIONS & HIPAA LAW VIOLATION | GET A REFUND | Health insurance - YouTube
Channel: Life With Jazzy Mac
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If you're watching this video it's
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probably because you just received a
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medical debt collection in the mail or
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you're currently paying on a medical
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collection!
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Well,
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in this video we're going to talk about
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ways to settle your medical collection
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debt for literally pennies on the dollar
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or
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how to get that medical debt forgiven
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and if you've already made payments on
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your medical collections i'm gonna tell
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you a way that you might actually be
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entitled to a refund for those payments
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so
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let's get into it
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Hi everyone, welcome back to my channel
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it's me Jazzy Mac thank you so much for
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coming back and if you're new to my
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channel go ahead and hit that like and
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subscribe button and turn on your
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notifications
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I have some pretty heavy stuff i'm going
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to talk about as far as your medical
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collections those icky icky collections
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that seem to haunt all of us
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i'm going to break it down into two
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scenarios basically
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um for if you have a medical collection
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that you just got that's not on your
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credit versus a medical collection that
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is on your credit and we're going to
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talk about the differences in how to
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treat those collections and how to make
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them go away so before we get into it
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guys i want you to
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basically do something for me so i can
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gauge
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what type of content i need to put out
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as a follow-up to this go ahead and type
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a number "1" in the comment box if you
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currently have medical debt in
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collections just give me a number one
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and give me a number "2"
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if you've actually paid off a collection
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for medical debt so a number one if you
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currently have medical collections a
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number two if you've paid off a medical
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collection within the last few years
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because i'm telling you
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the ones for those of you that have paid
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off um a collection you might be
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entitled to a refund that's why i'm
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trying to get you guys to understand
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like
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this is serious business you don't have
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to just buckle down and pay stuff
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because sometimes they're not entitled
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to that payment so let's hop right in
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and let's talk about some things so
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let's just get into the first scenario
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where
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um if you have a medical collection that
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let's say you just got it in the mail
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today
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what you would need to do to handle that
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um and to possibly make it go away so
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let's say you got a procedure
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and that procedure cost two thousand
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dollars but you've received a collection
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in the mail for that same medical
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procedure that states that you owe
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three thousand dollars and there is a
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breakdown that shows that you owe two
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thousand for the procedure you owe
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500 for the collection fee and then
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they're charging you 500 in interest
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let's just assume that's how they came
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to the 3 000 number do you pay it
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absolutely not you know why because
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jazzy mac told you not to
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and because jazzy mac is going to tell
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you what your consumer rights are as
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well so let's look at your rights the
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first thing that you want to do anytime
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you get a medical collection um notice
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in the mail whether you think it's right
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or not you always want to ask for
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validation when we ask for validation we
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are challenging the collection agency
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to provide proof that the account indeed
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belongs to us number one and that those
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charges that they're stating are ours
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um we want them to be able to back up
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what they're saying and to prove it and
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not just say oh here's a balance but you
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prove it by providing the original
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contracts with our wet signature
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that shows that we agree to those terms
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and agreements so that's the first thing
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you want to do now you don't necessarily
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want to do this over the phone
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um you know because it's you know it's
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it's
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not a paper trail and anytime that you
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communicate with a collection agency you
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always want to have a paper trail in
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case you have to escalate it at a later
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time and i'll tell i'll talk about who
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you can escalate to
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um in these situations so the first
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thing you're going to do is create um
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write out your validation letter
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to
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the collection agency asking for the
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original contract but you're also going
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to include the line for hipaa because
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according to hipaa
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your information cannot be shared um
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with a third party without your prior
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consent meaning that you would have had
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to sign an agreement that says you give
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authorization for the medical facility
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to share that information with the third
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party in this case being the collection
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agency um and them reporting information
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about you as far as sending you a notice
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saying that you owe something that's
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sharing your information so we're gonna
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we want to challenge that because one
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it's not legal for them to do that if
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you didn't give prior consent and then
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two
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um it's also a way for you to just make
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sure that you're keeping people honest
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and you're not letting people take
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advantage of you so if you ask for the
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validation letter and they're not able
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to provide you
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with validation within 30 days then
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legally they're not able to collect it
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and they should either refer the account
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back to the facility or they should
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forgive the debt altogether if they have
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indeed purchased that debt from the
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facility so again if it's not valid
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meaning they can't provide you the
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original contracts um they cannot
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continue to pursue that from you because
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you number one don't have an agreement
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with them um in addition where you trip
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them up at is if they do provide a
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contract to you and that contract does
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not explicitly state that you give
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authorization to a third party to access
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your records that is a hipaa violation
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when we talk about hipaa violations now
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we're getting into
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where they can be severely fined
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by the cfpb which is the consumer
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finance protection bureau in fact there
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was just a case where um
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there was a collection agency
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that actually violated uh one of the
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hipaa laws
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and they were required to pay consumers
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back and not only the money that the
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consumer had spent paying off the debt
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but they had to give them an extra
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thousand dollars for damages and as a
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violation fee and they also had to pay
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250 000
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i believe in restitution
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so trust me
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um you have rights and you need to
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exercise those rights and so if um the
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collection efforts were to continue
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um after they have failed to provide
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validation that's when you want to do
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your cfpb complaint um and you want to
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file that complaint against the
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collection agency uh for illegally
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pursuing a debt um and also for
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violating your hipaa violating the hipaa
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privacy laws and trust me the cfpb does
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not take that type of stuff uh lightly
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they take it very seriously so usually
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that will result in if it's a hipaa
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violation usually the debt will either
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be forgiven or you'll be
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not required to pay the debt um you know
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there's going to be some sort of you
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know outcome if if the hipaa
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um was violated so that's if you don't
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get validation and it you know
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is a violation
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however on the flip side
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as far as medical debt being reported on
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your credit
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uh when it's past that initial 30-day
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mark
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when you first get it in the mail if
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it's on your credit there's a couple of
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different things you want to do
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to again challenge it so as far as
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asking for validation with
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in this case if it's on your credit i
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would personally
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do the dispute process with the credit
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bureau
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and the first scenario we did with the
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collection agency in this scenario we do
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it with the credit bureau because
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they're the ones that are listing it out
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so you want to just write your dispute
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letters ask for validation and also
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mention hipaa and again i have the
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templates below if you don't feel
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comfortable just drafting a letter from
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scratch i have templates below for how
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you ask for medical
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debt validation
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and how you need to insert that hipaa
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wording so that your case is treated in
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a different way than how they would
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treat general
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disputes so i have that below but again
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you want to make sure that in the case
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of it being on your credit report you go
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and dispute it directly with the three
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bureaus if that's where they're
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appearing um if you don't hear back in
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30 days if they can't validate it in 30
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days then by law they are supposed to
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remove that account completely
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from your credit uh report altogether
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okay so if they do not do that and they
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do not provide validation they don't
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provide you the original contracts and
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they can't you know um show you like a
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signature where you've signed off
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acknowledging the debt within a contract
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then that's when we also again want to
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escalate to big brother who's big
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brother the cfpb the cfpb um is where
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you'll file the complaint against the
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credit bureau and against the collection
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agency on the same complaint i also have
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that mapped out in my credit roadmap
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i've tried to make it super super easy
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for you guys to follow these steps
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because they really are simple steps to
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get that debt like completely removed so
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that's um
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just pretty much you know the rundown
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for if these debts can't be validated
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now let's say
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uh you have a collection that is
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completely valid you've read through the
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contract you've acknowledged that you
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know you actually did give a third party
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um access to your information you signed
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off on it let's say the debt is
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completely valid
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well
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what you can do is you can offer to do a
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debt settlement now if it's on your
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credit report we're not doing anything
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um without a written notice saying that
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they will delete it from your credit
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after payment that's known as a pay for
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delete um but if it is not on your
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credit yet then you can negotiate for a
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much lower amount and the thing is
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they purchase these debts for pennies on
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a dollar they can buy a thousand dollar
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debt for literally a hundred dollars so
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if you owe
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a collection of a thousand dollars but
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you just say hey i only have 200 that's
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it
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take it or leave it
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they're normally going to take it
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especially if you use the b word what is
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the b word the b word is bankruptcy if
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you ever
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mention like hey i just want to i just
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want to clear this debt up i want to
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settle it for less i only have 200 if
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you don't accept it then i'm just going
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to add it to my bankruptcy pal and you
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guys won't get anything i mean they're
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going to say oh wait wait no
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we'll take it or hey could you do 40
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instead or can you do 50 of the debt to
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market as resolved and for us to take it
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off your credit or stop pursuing you
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whatever the case may be so you want to
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exercise using the b word um if that
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situation
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applies to you um some of you may have
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different strategies or tactics that you
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may use um but for me it was using the b
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word um because at one point i did
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consider bankruptcy until i found out
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that you know
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student loans wouldn't go away with
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bankruptcy um that was before i paid off
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my student loans that was years ago but
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the b word use it use it to your
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advantage especially if you're going
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through a financial hardship i'm not
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telling you to file for bankruptcy but
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i'm telling you to use it strategically
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as a way to convince them to settle your
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debt
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and as i mentioned
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if you've already paid some medical
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collections
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there may possibly be
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a refund in your future
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depending on who you paid
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and i'll explain that so
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that same i'm just going to look at my
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notes here
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that same story that i was telling you
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about when cfpb took action against that
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medical debt collector and um charged
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him with that 500 000
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penalty for violating hipaa laws so
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basically when you get
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any type of collection letter in the
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mail
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five days prior to you getting that
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letter in the mail you're supposed to
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have gotten a phone call
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um just you know a verbal phone call
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saying hey it's abc collection company
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we're calling to collect a debt and
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here's your debt amount
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so after you get that call they're
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supposed to send you a written notice
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um of the debt
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what happens many times is people go and
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pull up their credit report and they
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look and see that they've got a medical
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collection on there and they never even
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got anything in the mail no one ever
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called them no one ever gave them the
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opportunity to rectify it
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it just popped up on their credit report
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that is a direct violation of the
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consumer finance protection bureau's
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guidelines around a medical debt
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collection you have to give the consumer
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um a fair amount of time to rectify that
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debt and to resolve it
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but many companies are very cutthroat
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they won't give you that opportunity to
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resolve it and they'll immediately
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report it to your credit
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because now they just they're using that
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as a scare tactic to get you to just pay
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them
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and you know again that is against the
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law so if you are one of those people
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that that's happened to you file your
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complaint with the cfpb and depending on
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the company that you're filing it
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against you may be entitled to getting
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not only a refund back for the medical
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collection amount that you paid
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and having it removed from your credit
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but you also might be entitled to
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getting um up to a thousand dollars in
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damages and no that doesn't even require
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you to go to court many times those are
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things that are settled outside of court
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and those are things that have already
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amounts that have already been allocated
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for consumers so you want to
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make sure that you read up on that i'll
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actually put that article i think i'll
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um put it in the description box for you
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guys to read because it's a very very
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interesting piece
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of knowledge to have as far as like i
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never knew that you could get refunds
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for medical collection debt until a few
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years ago
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when i disputed some things um and you
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know
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you can either dispute it you know
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through the method i've discussed or
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sometimes you can even dispute it
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through the bank
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um if you can prove that the cfpb has
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stated that they illegally collected
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those funds from you you can absolutely
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dispute that with the bank and get your
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money back as long as it's not passed
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you know the bank's dispute uh window
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so
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again you know challenge every single
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medical collection that you get it is
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your consumer right
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do not pay something blindly even if you
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think you owe it challenge it because
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chances are they tacked on some fees
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that you didn't even pay attention to
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and that's how they get rich so um
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in the course of doing that never just
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admit to owing a debt always say hey i
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don't know if i owe that and what you
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know you want to
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like play dumb because if you admit to
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owing it or if you acknowledge um the
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debt then that resets the clock for the
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statute of limitations for how long they
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can collect or pursue the debt from you
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so i hope all of that makes sense um you
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know
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i i just i hate that
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this country is just just built on greed
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from these corporations that take
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advantage of consumers and so that's why
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i try to put this information out there
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and i hope that it was helpful let me
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know what your situation is if you are
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currently facing a collection or if
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you're being harassed by a collection
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agency which is also illegal
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let's talk about that in the comments so
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i hope that was helpful
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and i hope you enjoyed it until the next
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time people i will see you later stay
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safe stay healthy and stay beautiful bye
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you
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