Consumer complaint received 2020-07-23
Company: Bonneville Billing and Collections
State: UT
Product: Debt collection
Sub-product: Medical debt
Issue: Took or threatened to take negative or legal action
Sub-issue: Sued you without properly notifying you of lawsuit

Complaint:
XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX Good Afternoon , I need of some help with some issues that have come up between myself and XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX regarding some erroneous billing issues made on their behalf which they acknowledge it was their error but they refuse to make it right. There are so many things that this clinic has done to me over the past few weeks which I need help in resolving. I XXXX   for a XXXX  XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX contracted with XXXX  to provide XXXX to individuals  under Medicaid that need XXXX to and from their doctor appointments, I have to do a yearly background check and drug screen to stay compliant or I can not XXXX. I did my drug test on XX/XX/XXXX and being proactive I called the Clinic to have my doctor provide me a note to provide to my employer showing that I am prescribed the medications  that will come back with a positive result that I have them in my system. At that time I was transferred to billing because they inactivated my account. The policy for that clinic and its billing process is that I can not have a balance due or in collections or I can not be seen by the Doctor, have medication refills and then come to find out on Thursday, XX/XX/XXXX the billing department wouldnt even send over a request to my doctor for me to get a clearance note so I can continue to work. I finally after I was on the phone with the billing department for like an hour I just told the representative that I will go a different route with this and ended the call. The morning of XX/XX/XXXX I received a phone call from XXXX who is one of XXXX XXXX Medical Assistant regarding the billing issue interfering with the Dr. note I needed. I advised her I already know of the issue which I was trying to deal with. XXXX asked me if I wanted to speak to the Manager and I declined because at this time I do not have the time nor the patience to talk to somebody else who will again confirm that this billing issue is an error on their end but they will not fix it. Later on in the day, XXXX, who is Dr. XXXX primary medical assistant called me to advise me that she has the Dr. note verifying my medications are prescribed that is why I will test positive for them so I dont fail my drug screen. So with that issue out of the way now I can explain how this all came about. I was prompted to call XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX on XX/XX/XXXX or XXXX because while sitting with my boss, Bonneville Collections called him to verify my employment which then I looked at my credit report and there were 3 existing collections from Bonneville collecting for XXXX XXXX which I had previously disputed because I should not owe any money to them so I called and I spoke with a gal who went through the account and said that she shows nothing owing on my account but she was going to escalate it to a higher level to see if there is something that is there that she isnt seeing and she stated that she will have her supervisor call me back. Well nobody called me back which I thought nothing of because the initial gal could not see any balance or collections on my account owing. So when I called Thursday, XX/XX/XXXX to get the note that is when they told me that my account was inactivated due to the balance I owe them through Bonneville Collections which is the one I called them inquiring about the week before. So basically I brought it to their attention. Last year I did have a balance that went to collections through XXXX XXXX for around {$400.00} and I did try to make an appointment in XXXX and a gentleman from XXXX XXXX spoke to my husband and told him about the balance and that XXXX XXXX needed to be paid and confirmed before I could make an appointment. Nothing about Bonneville Collections was mentioned at that time. My husband calls XXXX XXXX and pays the {$400.00} and then called XXXX XXXX back and spoke to a completely different gentleman who placed my husband on hold, called XXXX XXXX   to confirm payment and then the gentleman reactivates my account and nothing about Bonneville Collections until now. The two ladies I spoke with say and I will quote that Your account was reactivated in error. The representative that reactivated your account did not check for collections at Bonneville Collections and only the one at XXXX XXXX so it should not have been reactivated. So apparently now that I brought it to their attention with my initial phone call I was told that money due in collections at Bonneville Collections is from services from XXXX and XXXX and what the billing department told me on the XXXX of XXXX is that it was sent over as a balance of $ XXXX- {$400.00} but now I owe over {$2200.00} because of interest and legal fees when I was not even aware of it because per XXXX XXXX billing guidelines, I can not be provided with any services if I have a balance owing and I was having my regular doctor appointments up to XX/XX/XXXX when I had to pay the {$400.00} through XXXX XXXX. I did speak to a Supervisor by the name of XXXX in the XXXX XXXX Billing Department on the same day XX/XX/XXXX who attempted to explain to me what happened which I had already been told by two separate representatives that this was in fact an error that was made by the representative back in XX/XX/XXXX and I asked her to pull it back from Bonneville and send me an itemization sheet showing dates of service and payments and I will go through my information and if I cant find the payment then I will pay it. She refused to even entertain that resolution and then she proceeds to tell me that when anything above {$200.00} that goes for so many days without being paid will go to collections which I didnt care about at that point but only a few days later, I wake up with a credit alert score decrease of 67 points for a new collection for {$98.00} from XXXX XXXX. This new collection is completely contradictory from what the Supervisor XXXX told me 2 days prior which seems like this is some kind of retaliatory actions they are trying to do because I confronted the issue and they want to show they have the power to send me to collections and block me from getting my Dr. Appointments/ Medication  refills/ Dr. notes needed for me to be able to work. I have been under Dr. XXXX care for several years and I do have a XXXX that he provides treatment to me for it. Dr. XXXX and his M.A. XXXX have taken very good care of me and have been there when I needed them. When I was able to get the doctor note I thanked the medical assistant so much because up until the time she told me she was able to get the clearance for me to work, XXXX XXXX billing error had almost taken away my livelihood because I needed my Dr. note in order to work, they have blocked my medical treatments and they have me being sued by Bonneville Collections for over {$2200.00} which is an admission of error on their behalf. My boss just called me today advising he received the garnishment paperwork from Bonneville Collections. The billing department has made a huge error and refuses to fix it although I offered to pay the original balance if I even owed it and now they are intentionally sending any balance I have owing to collections even against what I was told was their protocol. I do not have medical insurance so I do have to pay $ XXXX {$95.00} out of my pocket to be able to see my doctor so I have no idea on why I should even have a balance now.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation