Consumer complaint received 2019-02-02
Product: Debt collection — Medical debt
Issue: Communication tactics — Frequent or repeated calls
Company: HCFS Healthcare Financial Services of TeamHealth (MI)

I went to a hospital a few months ago for an emergency ( XXXX Hospital, XXXX ) and stayed there for less than a day. The hospital got all the information they asked for including my SSN, address and phone ( I handed them my drivers license ). 

A few weeks later i received a letter from my insurance company that a portion was paid by the insurance, the letter said that I still need to pay to the hospital {$1700.00}. No problem till here since I was expecting to get a bill from the hospital. 

But, a few weeks later I received a call from a company called XXXX ( XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX ). This company obviously had my phone number and my address ( The information about my address is important in what will come next ). The 1st call, they mentioned the street address where I live asking me for the complete address since this is personal, as they claim, I refused and asked them to send what they want in writing. 

They called a 2nd time and a third and I kept telling to send me a mail but I didnt get a mail from them. Last time I received a call from a lady, telling me shes from XXXX ( she has a notable accent, close to a british ), she was pressing me to tell her my address since she kept mentioning the street address. I finally did, she said shes a  debt collector, that I was in a hospital and that I have to pay {$1700.00}, she tried to make me pay right on the phone call by asking for a credit card and making pay about {$700.00} less ( XXXX ), I said I will pay this on the evening when I come back from work. I did speak to her about my address asking why I am not getting a mail, and I found out that the last digit of my address was XXXX  instead of XXXX  ( Note there is big difference in the shape of XXXX  and XXXX to say that someone had confused those 2 numbers when taking my address ) .I closed the phone. 

Then I called the hospital ( XXXX XXXX ). They asked for my last name and address to verify me, then I askes them if I there is a bill for me in their system. They said yes and the amount is XXXX. I told them about the call I got from XXXX asking to collect this amount. They replied that they never heard about this company and that my bill was never sent for collection and is still far from that. Then I asked them why I never received a bill from the hospital, they said they sent it to my address. I asked them about the address they have, and to my surprise the last digit of thsi address was XXXX instead of XXXX, same as XXXX, I asked the hospital to modify the address to the right me one and to send me the bill. 

After a few days I completely paid that hospital and I also received the bill. 

Now, this company XXXX is keep calling me, and they change the number they call from but I am ignoring them. Today I received a letter from them ( finally XXXX telling me Your promissed payment of XXXX is due, that is it. 

This company XXXX is obviously a scammer, they somehow were able to get my contact information from the hospital ( Since both had the same, but wrong address ), without the hospital authorization ( this was confirmed by the hospital ). Those people should be put in prison since they are unlawfuly trying tomsteal money from other, using phone calls and pressing people to pay right on the line. I am writing this to help other people to deal with such situation and hoping that someone from the goverment is able to punish people operating this scammmat XXXX. 

The letter I finally received from XXXX contain their address ( where the payment should go to ) so I hope they can be tracked and punished