That is true. Two years ago I went to a local emergency room and was billed, as was my insurance. The insurance company sent my form showing how much the hospital charged, how much was allowed under their contract with the hospital, and how much I owed.
The form stated that for no reason was I to pay the difference between what the hospital charged and the amount the insurer and the hospital had agreed, which amounted to something like $73.00
I paid my portion and thought that was that.
I then got a bill from the hospital which demanded immediate payment of the $73.00. I wrote back that I didn't owe it and to take it up with the insurance company.
Next month I got a call from a collection agency. Some weasel making threats and snarling on the other end of the phone is always greeted with a rude remark and a hangup by me. I told him the situation and hung up.
A few months later, I checked my credit report. There is was: two or three lines that confirmed my dead beatness to the world. The collector had reported my delinquency, all $73.00 of it. Fuming, I gathered my insurance docs and hospital bills and started doing the math, all ready to sue the SOBs.
That's when I found MY error. Because of deficient math skills, I had underestimated what I owed to hospital by........$73.00. I had paid them almost $300, but came up $73.00 short. Of course, I felt like an idiot.
I wrote the hospital a check the next day. I wasn't a dead beat or a bad credit risk, far from it. But, I had made an honest mistake.
Dang. This turned into a long post.
There is no such thing as an honest mistake to a collection agency.
One month after my I came home form the hospital with my new baby I received a bill from the hospital claiming my insurance company had refused the claim 10 days before. The hospital rfused to show me the paper work from the insurance company, and so I called the company to ask why the claim was denied --- my claim was not denied........the company had not been billed when the hosital claimed it was. In fact the day I got the bill from the hospital was the same day the insurance company received it from the hospital.
It is not always the collection agency's fault..........in this case the particular hospital had a notorious reputation for doing that kind of stuff.
Did you explain to the hospital that you'd made an honest mistake and ask them to remove the account from the collection agency and have the negative information taken off of your report?
Most of the time, especially with medical bills, if it's an honest mistake or an insurance screw up, they will remove it for you.