Tonight after 5:00 pm I went thru the mail that was delivered today. There was a bill from a hospital that was dated 3/30/2001. As we look back, my son did break his finger back then. We had excellent insurance back then. My question is, would you pay that bill today 17 years later? Maybe the hospital screwed up the billing, but we don't keep records this far away from the event. And why contact us now? We have lived in the same house for 26 years now. Are we obligated for a bill 17 years ago? I did call their billing department which was already closed for the day.
Living the Dream
March 05, 2018, 04:55 PM
JALLEN
Statue Statute of limitations may have run by now.
[This auto correct is my worst enema!]
Luckily, I have enough willpower to control the driving ambition that rages within me.
When you had the votes, we did things your way. Now, we have the votes and you will be doing things our way. This lesson in political reality from Lyndon B. Johnson
"Some things are apparent. Where government moves in, community retreats, civil society disintegrates and our ability to control our own destiny atrophies. The result is: families under siege; war in the streets; unapologetic expropriation of property; the precipitous decline of the rule of law; the rapid rise of corruption; the loss of civility and the triumph of deceit. The result is a debased, debauched culture which finds moral depravity entertaining and virtue contemptible." - Justice Janice Rogers Brown
March 05, 2018, 04:55 PM
jhe888
I won't say whether you should pay the bill.
They don't seem to have a leg to stand on, should they decide to pursue this in court. The statute of limitations on that debt probably ran twelve years ago.
The fish is mute, expressionless. The fish doesn't think because the fish knows everything.
March 05, 2018, 04:56 PM
jhe888
Hey, that JAllen is pretty smart.
The fish is mute, expressionless. The fish doesn't think because the fish knows everything.
March 05, 2018, 04:57 PM
rusbro
Hmmm. Tell them you'll pay them with the same alacrity as they billed you?
Honestly, I'd check local laws first, and if you have the law on your side tell them to pound sand. I'm all for paying what's owed, but like you said, you no longer have the records to verify.
March 05, 2018, 04:59 PM
Skins2881
They can't collect it as long as you don't make any promise to pay, that would restart the clock on the debt. If there was any way to prove it I would pay if they could prove it, but it's impossible to prove after 17 years who paid what and when. Maybe you did forget, or maybe it was already paid, who knows?
Jesse
Sic Semper Tyrannis
March 05, 2018, 05:01 PM
BamaJeepster
Not a chance. Throw it in the trash and forget about it. They've bought some old debt and hope you respond so they can start hounding you for it, whether you legally owe it or not.
<This is just what I would do, I'm not a lawyer>
“Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.” - John Adams
March 05, 2018, 05:04 PM
Angus the Kid
quote:
Originally posted by BamaJeepster: They've bought some old debt
Exactly
"Meet the new boss, same as the old boss"
March 05, 2018, 05:08 PM
rtquig
For all I know, my insurance company paid the bill. We are not people that don't pay our debts.
Living the Dream
March 05, 2018, 05:14 PM
h2oys
Virtually every insurance carrier has a 1-year max time frame for participating providers in their network to file their claim. If they go beyond that timeframe, tough luck.
That was the case 17 years ago like in your situation. I think the others are correct that they sold the debt and they are "fishing".
On another note, as a PSA, providers usually have patients sign a financial responsibility form before you get treatment. I always add a hand-written note to that form that states; "per your participating provider contract".
Not sure if it would hold up, but, that way I probably don't have to pay any balance bills, old claims, etc., as they are disallowed under their contract with the insurance carrier.
March 05, 2018, 05:15 PM
ensigmatic
I would file it, for record-keeping purposes, and that's all. I wouldn't acknowledge to them I even received it.
"America is at that awkward stage. It's too late to work within the system,,,, but too early to shoot the bastards." -- Claire Wolfe "If we let things terrify us, life will not be worth living." -- Seneca the Younger, Roman Stoic philosopher
March 05, 2018, 05:18 PM
erj_pilot
"If you’re a leader, you lead the way. Not just on the easy ones; you take the tough ones too…” – MAJ Richard D. Winters (1918-2011), E Company, 2nd Battalion, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne "Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil... Therefore, as tongues of fire lick up straw and as dry grass sinks down in the flames, so their roots will decay and their flowers blow away like dust; for they have rejected the law of the Lord Almighty and spurned the word of the Holy One of Israel." - Isaiah 5:20,24
March 05, 2018, 05:19 PM
rusbro
quote:
Originally posted by ensigmatic: I would file it, for record-keeping purposes, and that's all. I wouldn't acknowledge to them I even received it.
I'm not a lawyer, but that sounds like good advice to me.
March 05, 2018, 05:20 PM
RHINOWSO
17 years?
Ah, they can eat a bag of dicks.
Not saying throw it away, but it probably looks like all the other junk mail you throw away...
March 05, 2018, 05:25 PM
kz1000
quote:
Statue of limitations
------------------------------------------------------------------------ "Yidn, shreibt un fershreibt"
"The Nazis entered this war under the rather childish delusion that they were going to bomb everyone else, and nobody was going to bomb them. At Rotterdam, London, Warsaw and half a hundred other places, they put their rather naive theory into operation. They sowed the wind, and now they are going to reap the whirlwind." -Bomber Harris
It might have been sent by mistake. They may have run some batch process that printed it out accidentally. I am in IT and we get stuff like this from time to time. Just last week we had someone approve access to one of our systems for an employee who was no longer with the company! Someone else on my team worked it, but apparently it was "stuck" in a queue, and someone made a change that got it "unstuck". It was in that queue for 3 years!
March 05, 2018, 05:46 PM
zipriderson
Curious, what's the amount? If you want to pay it, and it's 3rd party, it's negotiable.
For me, I wouldn't pay it. The original supplier has some obligation to bill and collect in a timely manner. To stick it to you this many years later because of their own administrative shortcomings is their problem, not yours.
March 05, 2018, 05:54 PM
smithnsig
I had an old bill from surgery for the anesthesiologist. It was years old. I never knew about it. The only reason I found it is because my credit rating went from 845 to 680. They were sending it to my childhood address. I got it resolved. They will ding your credit.
----------------------------------------------------------- TCB all the time...
