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Posts Tagged ‘Medical Debt’

This is, unfortunately, a bad case of identity theft. You need to protect yourself and your son in a number of ways, starting by pulling your most recent credit reports, examining them for any other accounts that you may not know about, and then putting a credit freeze on your credit reports. Read this article for more information about how a credit freeze can protect your credit rating.

http://askthemoneycoach.com/2010/01/what-is-a-credit-freeze-and-how-can-i-use-one-to-protect-my-credit/

Additionally, if you know who made those claims, you should report that person to the proper authorities — both the hospital and healthcare provider, and the police. The accounts you mentioned are in collections that wound up on your credit report. So I imagine, the identity thief is probably someone you know, love or trust. If this person was able to use your son’s information, they presumably had knowledge of your home address and – more importantly – sensitive data such as your social security number. Notify the hospital or clinic where the services were performed that it was definitely not your son. Then ask if you (or the attorney you mentioned hiring) can investigate the hospital’s records related to the medical claims you’ve been billed for. The identity thief likely filled out some forms, and you’ll be able to see if they did, in fact, list your social security number and other personal information of yours. This may give you a clue into who had access to such private information about you. Even if it turns out that your information was merely misappropriated by a complete stranger, you should dispute this information with
the credit bureaus. Let them know that you were the victim of identity theft and the credit bureaus (Experian, Equifax and TransUnion) may remove those collection accounts. Read this post for the websites for filing an online dispute with the credit bureaus.

http://askthemoneycoach.com/2010/01/what%E2%80%99s-the-fastest-way-to-get-the-credit-bureaus-to-fix-mistakes-in-my-credit-reports/

Regarding your credit cards, yes, do notify them also of the identity theft and that this is the reason for the collections and public records on your credit file. But honestly, I wouldn’t expect much from them. Unfortunately, the damage has been done. And while it’s good to put your creditors on notice about the identity theft, I doubt that those creditors will re-open your cards or restore your previous credit limits. Your best bet is to probably wait to clean up this identity theft mess first, then re-apply for a new credit card and/or a new increase in your credit limit.

Lastly, I would also suggest that you enroll in a credit monitoring service. That way you’ll be able to monitor your credit reports and make sure nothing fishy is going on, such as unauthorized accounts you didn’t open.

In a word: yes, those old, alleged medical and hospital delinquencies can be removed from your credit report, but it will likely take some focused work on your part to get them eliminated. Sometimes, medical collection accounts show up on a credit report even after 7 years if a person has paid monthly payments on the debt or has somehow “reactivated” the account by giving lump sum payments, partial payments on settlement payments to get rid of creditors. In your case, you may not have done this, since you said you’ve always disputed the debts. Nevertheless, be aware that a medical bill alleged to be past due might take a year or so (could be more time; could be less) before it’s reported as a collection account. If you had a hospital bill they claimed you owed, from 2003, and it wasn’t reported to the credit bureaus until 2004, that information would remain on your credit report until at least 2011.

Here’s what to do: if the debts are, in fact, more than 7 years old, simply dispute them online at Equifax, Experian and TransUnion. When you specify a reason for your disputes, state that the debts are outdated. If you get nowhere with the credit bureaus, write to the hospital or medical institutions in question directly. Let them know that they are violating the Fair Credit Reporting Act by reporting a debt that is more than 7 years old, and issue a firmly-worded letter insisting that they cease and desist all such reporting to the credit bureaus.

Medical bills do not adversely impact your credit or your credit score, unless you have long overdue medical accounts that go into collections. In the latter case, a hospital or healthcare provider can turn over your medical bill delinquency to a debt collection agency or report an account in collections to the credit bureaus. Anything reported to the credit bureuas will hurt your credit rating. But just having a medical bills, even an account that’s 30 days old to 60, 90 days old or more, won’t automatically be reported to the credit agencies. Of course, you don’t want to tempt healthcare providers. Try to pay past due medical bills as soon as possible to avoid the potential threat of having an account go into collections.

A subscriber to Ask The Money Coach.com wants to know how to remove a medical collection account from their credit report. Click now to hear Lynnette’s answer.

Recommended Reading: Zero Debt

Retiring in two to three short years from now means you’ve got to ensure that your financial affairs are in good shape, and that you will have enough money on hand to last you another two or three decades. Many financial planners create plans for their clients on the assumption that the client will live until 90 or 100 years old. So you have to consider whether, if you retired at age 65 or 66, you would have enough money to last for potentially another 30 years.

Max Out that Retirement Plan at Work

Start by looking at what you’ve saved in your retirement plan at work. If you haven’t been aggressively saving in a 401(k) or 403(b) plan, by all means start doing so. Perhaps your employer offers a match to boost your retirement plan. Under federal law, most employees can put up to $16,500 into a qualified retirement plan in 2010. However, since you are over 50 years of age, you can also put into another $5,500 in “catch up” payments if you’ve been a late starter, in terms of saving. You can also sock money away into an IRA, or Individual Retirement Account. The 2010 limit for regular IRAs and Roth IRAs is $5,000, plus another $1,000 in allowable contributions for those 50 and above. Assess also any pension income or retirement benefits that will be provided directly by your employer. Then find out how much money you will be entitled to from Social Security. You can find out your expected Social Security payments by visiting the Social Security Administration’s website (www.ssa.gov).

Two Steps To Assessing Your Retirement Readiness

In summary, to make sure you are on track to retire when you want, you should follow these two steps:

Step 1: Calculate Your Retirement Needs
Think about what how much money you’ll need in retirement, on a monthly and annual basis. Take into account your projected monthly expenses, any debts you’ll have, along with the possibility of healthcare or medical costs, travel, as well as inflation. A good tool to use is the “Ballpark Estimate” retirement calculator from the American Savings Education Council at: www.icief.org/retirement/illustrations/ill_ballpark.html

Step 2: Estimate Future Benefits
After consulting your Human Resources Department or taking a look at any employer-provided pension income you may be expecting, go get an estimate of your Social Security benefits at www.ssa.gov./estimator.

If you don’t like what you see in the results, all is not lost. You have the option of working a bit longer, perhaps investing slightly more aggressively if you are comfortable doing so, or even using products like annuities that can offer you a steady income stream or make up for any financial shortfalls you may face.