Consumer complaint received 2022-03-28
Company: Io, Inc.
State: WA
Product: Debt collection
Sub-product: Medical debt
Issue: False statements or representation
Sub-issue: Attempted to collect wrong amount

Complaint:
This debt is regarding a visit to a XXXX XXXX XXXX in Virginia, on the date of XX/XX/XXXX. The total amount due was {$340.00} for this visit. At the time I was covered by XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX {$10.00} XXXX XXXX XXXX, an insurance plan I had purchased through the VA XXXX XXXX. 

Issue # 1 : No Record of XXXX $ co Payment, despite policy of requiring payment prior to service. 
On the day of the visit, I had to pay a XXXX $ co-pay to be admitted to the facility and prior to any treatment taking place. Quoting from the Virginia Treatment and Policies document submitted with their claim of this debt, is the following line If you have health care benefits, XXXX XXXX will submit a claim to your insurer on your behalf and allow no less than 60 days for the insurer to respond. You agree to pay at the time of service any required co-payments, co-insurance, and deductibles, as well as charges for services not covered by insurance, outstanding balances and delinquent accounts. For your convenience we accept cash, checks and credit cards. 
By their own policy, I could not have received XXXX XXXX had I not paid the XXXX $ co payment on the date of the visit, however their records do not show this payment. The fact that I was serviced that day, and they were able to properly bill my insurance company as shown by their own documents, demonstrates that this had to have been paid, according to their own policy. At the time of visit, XXXX XXXX as a standard practice, has clients sit with an intake staff member and remit payment before admission into the actual medical area takes place. This could not have possibly been skipped. 
Unfortunately, since I may have likely paid with cash, I do not have an electronic record of this payment made, especially since it has been so long, thus I have to point to their policy statement and known practices for this proof. Beyond this initial problem, the following issues are far more significant and easily demonstrated with their own documents. 

Issue # 2 : Listed Reversal of Insurance Payments without Cause The second issue, which is significantly more pressing, begins with the fact that their own documents show that my Insurance paid for my services on the XXXX of XXXX, XXXX, 8 days after the date of service. The amount paid totals to {$330.00} ( cost of service minus {$10.00} copayment ), which is comprised of a direct payment of {$190.00} from XXXX XXXX XXXX, combined with a negotiated Insurance discount of {$130.00}. At this point my service has been paid as agreed and shows my insurance was actively covering me. 
Without any explained reason, the insurance discount is billed to my account nearly 3 months later, on XX/XX/XXXX, and the insurance payment itself is listed as being refunded by XXXX XXXX the next day on XX/XX/XXXX. 
At this point, my obligation to XXXX XXXX has been satisfied. My insurance paid them, and as far as I can tell, they either mishandled that money on their own, or this is some sort of erroneous entry in their accounting. There is no proof of this refund provided in their documents, reasons for why it occurred, or where that money actually went. In addition the Reference numbers do not match up properly with the reference numbers of the initial payments and discounts, further making this look like a typo or error on their part that should not be my responsibility. 

Issue # 3 : Duplication of Insurance Reversals The third issue, and definitely the most obvious that this is an illegitimate debt, is a month later, on XX/XX/XXXX when their ledger shows a duplicated reversal of the Insurance Payment and Insurance Discount, charging my account an additional {$330.00} fraudulently. Based on the reference number, which has again changed from the original, I believe this is likely to more errors on their part. On the same day, The duplicated insurance payment is reversed and corrected, however the insurance discount is left on my account. It also seems as though someone tried to reverse previous late fees, in a half executed attempt to correct my account, since that implies they know I should not have been charged the late fees for the balance left by the first two reversals. This leaves at least XXXX that absolutely, under no circumstances, should have been billed to my account, even if everything else was right about this, which it clearly isnt. This alone makes the balance completely erroneous, as it makes up 27 % of the written off balance which has since been accruing interest and late fees. 

Issue # 4 : The Late Fees All of the late fees are also inherently bogus thanks to the underlying amounts they were charged on being equally as bogus as described above. One particular example I would like to point to, that further reinforces the sloppy accounting that was done here, is how I was charged a late fee of {$5.00} immediately after the first reversals, as though I had owed that money for a longer time than just the three days between when they were entered and when the fee was charged. 
In Closing : I have tried to contact Receivables Management but have been routinely ignored. Upon attempting to call them about this issue, I am told there is only one supervisor on the staff who can fix this, and that supervisor, who I imagine is also the owner, is never available and any forwarded calls go directly to voicemail, despite clear signs from the conversations Ive had that outwardly hint that she is both present and available in the office, and simply is choosing to ignore people like myself, despite the grievous errors I was attempting to address. 

I have attempted to dispute this with the Credit reporting companies, and while XXXX has removed this from my reports, XXXX and XXXX are still counting this debt as valid, despite multiple attempts at disputing it and explaining what I have outlined in this explanation. Every time I dispute this debt, Receivables Management has gone through the trouble of assuring the credit companies that this is in fact a valid debt, despite the clear and obvious signs it is not, and deeply erroneous and fraught with problems that should prevent it from being pursued in this manner. As far as I can tell, they have defaulted entirely to the furnishers opinion in this manner, who could not be bothered to actually look at the documents they are submitting as valid, or worse yet, is knowingly pursuing fraudulent debts and damaging peoples lives because they feel they can get away with it.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation