Complaint Review: Olathe Medical Center - Olathe Kansas

 I am copying and pasting my report into this one so you do not have to reference it.

On 03/08/2013, I had lab work done through Olathe Medical Center's Internal Medicine; the doctor was Jessica Gillespie Gephards, and she and the office are approved through Humana's in network program--my insurance provider.

Since they are an in-network provider, the co-pay for this service is $10. They billed Humana Choice PPO for $249, they paid $156.01, and the total approved amount is $166.01; therefore, the difference is my co-pay for $10. According to Mary at Humana, a rep that I spoke with on 08/22/2013 at 2:00pm, they should not be billing me for any additional amounts.

I received a phone call from RSH (RFH?) and Associates on 08/22/2013; the person I spoke to was Bill Shears. They initially left a message on my call notes stating they were attempting to collect a debt in my name, which is not legal for a 3rd party collection agency to divulge on a machine--anyone could retrieve the message. I called Bill Shears back, and he states that I owe the remainder amount that Humana Choice PPO failed to pay--approximately $82.99 which is the difference between the original billed amount and Humana's approved pay outs for their in-network providers. I advised him that my insurance is responsible for the amount, and all I owe is the $10 co-pay; obviously they and Olathe Medical's billing office have made a billing error. I also explained the in-network agreement, and I stated it was atypical to place an account for collection within 5 months of the debt (I used to work as a Credit Manager in underwriting), but also for the original account holder not to notify me in writing stating that I owed an additional amount, and  that it was going to be placed for collection if not paid within x number of days. I told him not to call me again, since I do not owe the bill, and he began to argue with me advising me that I owed the amount; moreover, he stated "why would Olathe Medical send them this as a collection item if I really didn't owe it"?  I finally terminated the phone call. I didn't want to argue with him, and his question seemed highly redundant considering I already told him what Humana was worked out with their in-network providers. You would think that RSH and Associates would immediately place a call to Olathe Medical's billing department rather than to continue to argue with a person who obviously is not going to pay. What a collossal waste of time and resources.

In the meantime, I called Humana Choice PPO back, and they did a three-way call with Olathe Medical's billing department. We spoke to a person named Cassie--a supervisor--and she advised that she could not research the problem today, because their computer system was down. Mary at Humana advised me to Humana back on Monday if the problem still had not been resolved (I would imagine Human would consider this to be insurance fraud and would want to began an investigation if it was not cleared up promptly). In the meantime, I decided to file a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau complaint against RSH and Associates, and an Attorney General and BBB report against both Olathe Medical and RSH and Associates for erroneous billing and harrassment. Since I didn't RSH and Associates physical address, I had to call them back.

Once again, I spoke with Bill Shears. It took me almost five minutes to get their address from him, since he kept arguing with me and talking over me, and I finally had to request to speak to their on-site operations manager before he forked over the complete address. When he transferred me, I spoke to someone who claimed to be the director--Nick Carraway--and he was equally as rude and obnoxious. He kept talking over me, kept arguing with me, and even went as far to tell me that I wasn't even in their computer system. Why then was Bill Shears attempting to collect this debt from me, telling me I owed almost $90, if they did not even have me in the system? I'm guessing this wasn't even a director that I was speaking with. More likely, Bill probably transferred me to one of his collection cohorts to keep himself out of trouble. I can't imagine any director of a collection agency would handle a person like I was handled, speaking over me, not letting me talk, and yelling at me when apparently he couldn't even find me in their system.

If you have also had a problem with RSH and Associates, please file complaints with the Comsumer Financial Protection Bureau, your Attorney General, and the BBB. Refer to the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act before filing a complaint, since not all collection calls apply.

Kramer and Frank are in Violation of the Fair Credit Reporting Act and the Fair Credit Billing Act.

The Fair Credit Billing Act (FCBA) is a United States federal law enacted as an amendment to the Truth in Lending Act (codified at 15 U.S.C.  1601 et seq.). Its purpose is to protect consumers from unfair billing practices.^[1]

Examples of billing errors

The following are examples of billing errors under the FCBA^[2]:

• Charges not actually made by the consumer
• Charges in the wrong amount
• Charges for goods not received by the consumer
• Charges for goods not delivered as agreed
• Charges for goods that were damaged on delivery
• Failures to properly reflect payments or credits to an account
• Calculation errors
• Charges that the consumer wants clarified or requests proof of
• Statements mailed to the wrong address

The Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) is an American federal law (codified at 15 U.S.C.  1681 et seq.) that regulates the collection, dissemination, and use of consumer information, including consumer credit information.  Along with the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA), it forms the base of consumer credit rights in the United States. It was originally passed in 1970,^[1] and is enforced by the US Federal Trade Commission.