It's Called Harrassment

So in keeping with the personal thing, my mother had breast cancer last year and she had to have surgery and go through chemotherapy and radiation. The bills started trickling in right away. I called to check on how much she owed and the people said nothing because it hadn’t gone through the insurance yet. First of all, why the hell does the hospital send you a bill before they’ve even processed it? What if I hadn’t called and my parents just paid the bill anyway? Would the hospital have given them a refund with the same quickness? I highly doubt it. That’s not the kicker though. After that, my mother called for each bill that came in and she was always told the same thing. She has two insurances so what one doesn't cover, the other is supposed to cover. Towards the end of last year a collection agency called about one of the bills and she was very surprised. Apparently, calling to check on your bill doesn’t mean you’ll be given factual information. Okay, we could deal with that, but my mother called the hospital to find out why she hadn’t received a new bill and what happened and in the process of asking that, she found out that one of her insurances had refused to pay. That didn’t sound right to her, and after years of paying for insurance and barely using it, she wanted to know how and why they refused to pay when they should have. She called the insurance in question and they informed her that the hospital had filed the paperwork incorrectly and the hospital would have to re-file and they would pay what they owed. Problem solved, right? No! She called the hospital, did their job for them and gave them the address where they needed to send the information, and they screwed it up again!

I bring this up because she told the collection agency that the bill in question was in dispute and the collection agency didn’t give a damn. They still wanted her to pay. She gave the agency a cease and desist order, but they continue to harass her even though it is illegal to do so. I keep telling her that once you give a cease and desist order, they’re not supposed to call you anymore because its in their rules. They can write you letters or try to sue you, but they’re not supposed to call. How do I know this? Well, besides learning it from a very insightful news story on the subject, collections was one of my many jobs and that rule was in the manual. When someone told me not to call them again, I had to put a cease and desist order with the number so that the next time it popped up, the person who got it would know not to call. What I don’t get is why they’re not respecting her request, and worse than that, if they would get off their asses and call the hospital that sent them the damn bill in the first place, they would know that bill has been resubmitted to her insurance.

The problem is that collection agencies don’t do anything but call and harass you. They could care less about having the story straight or getting all the facts and they ignore you when you call in and give them the information they need. My mother told them her entire situation, offered to call the hospital on three-way and have the hospital tell them and they still gave her attitude. I, personally say they’re lucky they’re dealing with her because I’m a nice person, but I would have been recorded myself telling them not to call me and documented the dates and times they called me afterwards and taken them for a ride.

I quit working collections because they tell you to treat people like crap. I had my trainer listening in one day and I called a woman who told me her mother had just died, and yes I realize she could have been lying, but at the same time, she could have been telling the truth. My trainer wanted me to tell this woman: “Your mother has nothing to do with this. This is your bill and you need to pay it now or I will be forced to take action against you.” (insert a heavy dose of attitude on my part). I sweetened it up some and said, “I’m sorry to hear about your mother, but you do still owe on this bill.” Of course the lady told me where to go and hung up. I would have done the same thing. There are a lot of jobs I will do, but calling someone and beating them up when they’re already down is not one of them. I don’t know how collection agents do it. I guess for some it’s a good way to get out their anger.

Anyway, I thought about this because my mother told me she received another call from the collections agency again today. All I can think is thank God she’s not sick anymore, because their harassment (every few weeks) would definitely be unnecessary stress. I feel bad for the people who are still sick and have to deal with that crap. And collection agents wonder why people hate them!

Emotional status: Channeling the irritation my mother is probably feeling.