Consumer complaint received 2016-03-28
Company: JP RECOVERY SERVICES, INC.
State: OH
Product: Debt collection
Sub-product: Medical
Issue: Improper contact or sharing of info
Sub-issue: Talked to a third party about my debt

Complaint:
I had XXXX performed on me in XX/XX/XXXX, and as a result, had to set up a payment plan to repay the cost of that XXXX. In XX/XX/XXXX, a new problem required some XXXX amounting to {$120.00}. Having already set up a payment plan for the bill created in XX/XX/XXXX, I immediately contacted XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX 's billing office to see if it was possible to add this new {$120.00} bill to my existing XX/XX/XXXX bill, and to continue making payments as I had been for XXXX years. At that time, the XXXX representative I was talking to assured me that such an arrangement would be fine and that she would absorb that bill into the other right then and there. On XXXX XXXX, XXXX, nine months after having made this arrangement with one employee, I received XXXX statements from XXXX XXXX XXXX stating that the {$120.00} bill for the lab work had become delinquent. I immediately contacted XXXX XXXX XXXX on XXXX XXXX, XXXX and inquired how this was possible. The XXXX representative at that time told me it was not possible to combine a newer bill with an older bill, and that they must be made separately. When I inquired why it had taken 9 months to let me know this, why I had never received any other statements before, and why I had finally received XXXX statements making the same claim, the XXXX employee simply blamed a new billing system which had been implemented that year. Not wanting such a problem to happen again, I paid the {$120.00} bill that day, and was content that the situation had been resolved. In XXXX XXXX I received another statement from XXXX, stating that another older bill had never been paid. When I called to inquire about why I had never received a billing statement for this bill before, and why this problem had once again been left alone for so long, I was once again told that a new system had been implemented in XXXX XXXX. The XXXX representative then offered to send me an itemized statement through the mail. When I received that statement I found that the {$120.00} bill I had paid in XXXX XXXX had not been applied to my bill until XXXX XXXX. Satisfied that at least the bill had been applied and eventually recorded, I did not bother to question XXXX any further about the matter. Then, on XXXX XXXX, XXXX I received a notice from JP Recovery Services INC. stating that my {$120.00} bill from XXXX had been delinquent and that they were going to recover the amount. I was again baffled by such a claim. On closer examination of my records, however, I found that the XXXX employee, in XXXX XXXX, did not apply my {$120.00} payment to the bill of the same amount, but rather to the oldest bill I had, thus making the bill I intended to pay delinquent. Once again, however, I never received any statements regarding this bill until the collection service had already become in possession of my bill. How is this fair for a paying patient to be forced to be delinquent, not for refusing to pay, but for a billing system 's repeated error? Either the XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX is massively incompetent or terribly corrupt, neither of which should its patients be suffering for. I will be paying all of my XXXX bills in full this year, so that I do not have to be bothered with such stress or harassment again, which is, I am sure the reason why XXXX does not send billing statements of any description, and why bills are hidden until they become delinquent. I have never had any such problem with any other medical facility I have ever had to use. To me this looks like XXXX XXXX is a hospital that is trying to work around allowing patients to make payments, and instead is forcing their patients by the most underhanded means to produce payments in full immediately.

Company public response: Company believes complaint caused principally by actions of third party outside the control or direction of the company
Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation