Consumer complaint received 2025-05-19 00:00:00
Product: Debt collection — Medical debt
Issue: Took or threatened to take negative or legal action — Threatened or suggested your credit would be damaged
Company: United Collection Bureau, Inc.
State: GA

Complaint narrative:
On or about XXXXXX/XX/XXXX, I went to the XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX. I provided my health insurance card for billing. Ambulance billed my insurance successfully. Hospital billed my insurance successfully. Only the XXXX XXXX billed it to the wrong company. My health insurance company sent a letter to XXXX XXXX billing dept. explaining they billed the wrong company and how to bill it correctly. XXXX XXXX billing dept. didn't do anything after that and eventually turned my account over to United Collection Bureau who is now refusing to remove it from my credit even AFTER the billing department admitted to my health insurance that they did not bill it to the correct company even though they had the correct information to do so. 

I have reached out to United, XXXX. XXXX XXXX XXXX the hospital and I reached out to XXXX XXXX ( my health insurance company ) regarding this attempt to improperly bill me and they have indicated that they have also reached out to United and XXXX about the bill. I will copy a portion of the transcript of that conversation with XXXX + XXXX below : XXXX, I reached out to the collection agency again and was told that we needed to send them a Certificate of Timely Filing to get this matter resolved. After explaining to them we can't send them proof that it was filed timely because XXXX never received the claim, they suggested that I call the provider directly. I reached out to XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX billing who confirmed that their claims had processed correctly and they provided a number for the physician 's billing through a company called XXXX ( pronounced XXXX ) at XXXX. I spoke to a representative of XXXX  who initially advised they couldn't discuss anything since it was in collections but agreed to give me some of the " back story '' so I could assist you with this matter. Upon reviewing the account she noted that they did send it to XXXX as that is what they received from the hospital for insurance information. I informed her that the hospital claims were successfully processed by XXXX so I wasn't sure where it was lost in translation. She then advised that they sent you XXXX separate statements asking for updated insurance information after they received the rejection from XXXX. I pointed out to her that XXXX also sent out a statement to them on XX/XX/XXXX after XXXX gave us the head 's up they believed they received a XXXX claim and that in that statement it shows where to send the claims. After verifying they did receive the information and that they didn't reach out to XXXX or XXXX for clarification, she agreed to escalate it for reprocessing to the right insurance. I did state that it will probably be denied for timely filing as it has passed 180 days from the original date of service, but at least we can work on next steps if we get a denial. 

By willfully and intentionally refusing to properly bill the appropriate insurance company and instead billing the client personally, the Provider is depriving the patient of the full benefit of his contract with his health insurance carrier. UnitedXXXX is serving its own financial interests by this practice of taking advantage of patients in emergency situations. 

LastlyXXXX XXXX law is clear that reporting balance bills to credit bureaus from out-of-network providers, is illegal. The relevant Georgia law is quoted below : No nonparticipating provider shall report to any credit reporting agency any covered person who receives a surprise bill for the receipt of healthcare services from such provider and does not pay such provider any copay, coinsurance, deductible, or other cost-sharing amount beyond what such covered person would pay if such nonparticipating provider had been a participating provider. 
XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX I have reached out to United Collection Bureau ( and the hospital XXXX XXXX billing departments of which there are multiple ) and I have requested the follwoing actions from XXXXnited : ( 1 ) Billing departments or companies on behalf of the XXXX XXXX XXXX  must send me a statement that lists all in-network health insurance providers and the rates those insurance companies pay for XXXX  services XXXX XXXX required ; ( XXXX ) That the above billing departments or companies immediately request that the credit bureaus remove my account from their reports. 
( XXXX ) That XXXX immediately remove the illegal collections account reported by United Collections Bureau from my credit report. 

If you have any questions or concerns regarding this matter, feel free to reach out to me via phone or email. This info should be immediately removed from my credit report because it is clearly the fault of the billing department for the XXXX XXXX 

XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation