I'm hoping someone here can help me. I will try to be as brief as possible but want to make sure I offer up all of the facts.
I have a collection of about $330 on my credit report that is being pursued by a collection agency.
Back in 2010 I had excellent medical insurance and had some blood work done for my cholesterol. Usually I paid my $20 co-pay and that's it. I was never made aware of any further charges nor sent a bill.
Fast forward 14 months after the date of service...I get a bill from my insurance company stating I owed an additional $230 something and that if I felt the amount was incorrect and wanted to dispute it I could do so up to 12 months after the date of service. Essentially the dispute period had expired two months before I even received the letter.
I reached out to the insurance company by mail and, as expected, they sent back some generic rejection letter and stated that I was still responsible for the bill.
I wrote back again, appealing their decision, and they rejected my request again.
Since then the debt has been turned over to a collection agency who is of no help at all.
Can any one be of help to me in getting this extortion, err I mean debt, completely erased from my credit report?
I've heard of writing a Cease and Desist letter as the debt may be too old, some have said to sue the debt collector in court???
I don't know what else to do and I really hate to pay the bill as I don't feel I should have ever been responsible for it since I had insurance that should have covered the charges at the time.
If it's best to pay it, rather than fighting it on principle, someone please tell me.
If my memory serves me correctly it seemed liked my credit report shows that the collection drops from my credit report in 2017 but who knows if that will ever happen plus I may be buying a house in the meantime and this has already cost me enough on my damaged credit.
Thank you in advance for any and all help. Please be clear in any suggestions you may have as I don't understand a lot of the abbreviations and acronyms used.