Consumer complaint received 2020-01-10
Product: Debt collection — Medical debt
Issue: Attempts to collect debt not owed — Debt was paid
Company: Mar Joe Enterprises (WA)

XX/XX/XXXX : Paid all of my medical bills. 

XX/XX/XXXX : I received a letter from the collection agency stating I had unpaid medical debt. Called the medical billing company to verify that my debt was paid and I had no outstanding balances. Assumed that was a lapse in reporting and figured I could do a simple phone call to clear up the misunderstanding. 

A total of XXXX cents was on the letter, dated XX/XX/XXXX. The phone call resulted in a grand total of XXXX $ with two different collection account numbers. I gave the woman the confirmation number and all applicable information regarding my payments done via computer and phone call on the XX/XX/XXXX. Since I provided the confirmation number, the woman who is handling this 'debt ' told me that this debt is paid in full and I would no longer receive any further action. 

XX/XX/XXXX Received another notice from the collection agency claiming I still owed this debt. The amount due on the letter was XXXX cents and it has a different claim number this time. Date on the letter is XX/XX/XXXX. I called my doctors billing company. Talked to a representative who stated to me that I had PAID the debt on XX/XX/XXXX and that their office did not send a second notice of collection to the debt company. I called the debt company and yet again, told her that I had already paid the debt directly to the medical company and provided the confirmation number again. Medical billing company called the debt collection company and told them I had already paid the bill and that it was settled. Medical bill company called me back to confirm that they had taken care of the situation and that I do not owe ANY MONEY to either company since there IS NO DEBT. 

XX/XX/XXXX Letter dated XX/XX/XXXX from debt collection company. Total debt is suddenly XXXX . With a different claim number. 

XX/XX/XXXX Call medical billing company to verify yet again that I do not have a medical debt and why it would now be XXXX . Representative states that he sees all of the prior notes from my other calls. No, I do not have any sum that would have totalled XXXX . No, their office did not send another request to collect debt, to the debt company. Representative said that the next step is to push this to upper management and they would have the matter resolved within 7 business days. That they themselves would deal with the debt collection company and get this handled. That I would not have to deal with it further. 

Call the debt collection company. Talk to the same woman. I request written itemized statement of all claims. I requested a review of the debt and wanted to know why now the amount had doubled. She then told me that the amount owed was requested by the medical billing company. We argued over the amount and why it had doubled. She was trying to pawn it all off onto my medical billing company. I again requested written itemized statements of all claims per my states laws. ( XX/XX/XXXX, I still have not received these requested documents ). 

XX/XX/XXXX NO LETTER YET. Received a phone call from that same woman at the debt collection company. She proceeds to claim that I owe XXXX $ for the original claim against me. And that the 'duplicate amount ' was " waived '' when I had the medical billing company call them directly. I told her that I had already provided the confirmation number from my payment of the debt on XX/XX/XXXX. I do not owe this debt. It has been paid. 

Now as of XX/XX/XXXX, They have turned the 'non payment ' into the credit companies and now this has negatively effected my credit score. I still have not received the requested itemized statements. They are trying to swindle money out of me. I refuse to pay them money that I do not owe. This is not the first time I have had to deal with this company. It was 15 or 16 yrs ago that they were trying to yet again bill me for debt I had already paid off. This time it was for over XXXX . It took me 2 yrs to get that resolved and it tanked my credit to do it. They doubled the amount just like they tried to do this time. This has been months of XXXX.