Merchants' Credit Guide Company

Thank you for the opportunity to respond to Ms. [redacted] complaint.  There has been no violation of Ms. [redacted] or the patient's privacy under HIPAA.  Merchants' Credit Guide Company is a contracted Business Associate of [redacted] Hospital.  Ms. [redacted] is correct in that she...

does not have a contract or agreement with Merchants' Credit Guide Company, but she does have one with our client and the creditor of this account, [redacted] Hospital.  We have sent her an itemized statement of the account twice because she asked for them.  We will now send her a copy of the signed agreement.  As for the balance due, the insurance coverage paid the majority of the charges.  The remaining balance is self-pay.  As an act of goodwill, we will remove this collection item from Ms. [redacted] credit reports.  In turn, we expect Ms. [redacted] to review the documentation we are sending her and take responsibility for paying this account.  Dan [redacted], PresidentMerchants' Credit Guide Company

Thank you for the opportunity to respond to Mr. [redacted] concerns.  First, allow me to set the record straight.  The treatment received from our client was not due to a work related injury, therefore not a workers' comp claim.  This is clearly indicated on the registration filled out...

by Mr. [redacted]  Second, Mr. [redacted] received a series of treatments over a three month period of time resulting in over 100 transactions, some of which were for the same type of treatment on a different date of service, thus **king it appear that there are "duplicate" claims reported to the credit bureau, but they are not duplicate transactions.  The 41 collection items Mr. [redacted] speaks of were the transactions that qualified from a balance standpoint to be reported.  There are **ny more smaller balance transactions/accounts that were not reported.  Third, Mr. [redacted] insurance company paid on several of these transactions leaving a co-pay or "applied to deductible" self-pay portion.  **ny other transactions were denied because the insurance company needed additional information from Mr. [redacted] to process the claim.  Our client called Mr. [redacted] to request the additional information needed to process the claims, but he did not return the calls.  Mr. [redacted]y still have an opportunity to provide this information to his insurance company for them to process these claims, but he will have to call his insurance company.  If the insurance company re-processes the claims, there **y still be co-pay or applied to deductible amounts due. 
These accounts have not been paid.  There are not any duplicate reports of any transactions.  There is nothing fraudulent in our actions.  There has been no violation of the Fair Credit Reporting Act. This complaint is the first time we have heard from Mr. [redacted] after numerous attempts to contact him.
We are sending Mr. [redacted] a copy of all the transactions, a copy of his registration and signed financial policy from our client.  We would welcome the opportunity to be of assistance in helping him get this **tter resolved.
[redacted] President
Merchants' Credit Guide Company

Thank you for the opportunity to respond to Mr. [redacted] concerns.  Please see Mr. [redacted] previous Revdex.com complaint #[redacted].  We responded to Mr. [redacted] previous complaint by forwarding him the requested information to his listed address on 7/20/15.  We also stopped calling him...

as he requested.  The accounts remain outstanding and were reported to the credit bureaus.  Since that time, two more accounts have been turned over to our company from the same client.  On 8/13/15, we sent him a letter informing him of these two additional accounts.  We have not received any response from Mr. [redacted] to any of this correspondence.  Today, I received account information from our client on all accounts under Mr. [redacted] name.  I will send it to him tomorrow morning, 11/4/15.  Upon receipt of this information, we look forward to hearing from Mr. [redacted] with any questions and / or payment.Dan [redacted]PresidentMerchants' Credit Guide Co.

Thank you for the opportunity to respond to Mr. [redacted] concerns.  We received this account back on 9/5/14.  We have spoken to Mr [redacted] on several occasions.  He never told us this was for a Workers Comp injury.  For the record, this is not a hospital account.  This...

is for the radiologist who read the x-rays or scans. Today, we will reach out to the credit bureaus to have this collection item deleted from his credit reports.  In addition, we will send a letter to Mr. [redacted] confirming this deletion.[redacted], President
Merchants' Credit Guide Co.

Revdex.com:
I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me.
It should be noted that I have NEVER received any itemized statements from Merchant's credit guide and calls to [redacted] has failed to provide proper validation of the alleged charges. I appreciate the removal of this account from my credit report and will keep an eye out for the original signed agreements and follow-up accordingly. I request of a copy of the documentation sent to the Credit reporting agencies for deletion-primarily [redacted]. Thank you in advance for your attention to this matter.
Sincerely,
Shondelle [redacted]

Thank you for the opportunity to respond to Ms. [redacted] concerns.  Upon receipt of the complaint, we asked the provider to review the eligibility of Ms. [redacted] coverage.  When they researched the payor's system, they found that Ms. [redacted] has two IDs with the payor.  One did not...

show eligibility and the other showed the claim was eligible.  The payor is now billing the claim under the ID # that shows Ms. [redacted] claim was eligible.  Our client has asked us to return the claim from our system, close the account and delete the collection item from Ms. [redacted] credit report.  On 5/20/16, we closed the account and deleted the item from her credit report. A letter confirming this deletion will be sent to Ms. [redacted] President
Merchants' Credit Guide Co.

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2015/10/02) */
Thank you for the opportunity to respond to Ms.[redacted] complaint. For the record, our client placed Ms.[redacted] account with our agency for collection on 5/26/15. Upon talking to Ms.[redacted] on 10/1/15, Mr.[redacted] DID contact our client and...

confirmed that she was making payments to the client. After discussing the matter with our client, our client agreed to recall the account from collections. In accordance with Ms.[redacted] Desired Resolution, we have closed the accounts and deleted them her credit reports. In addition, we mailed her the letter confirming the closure and deletion.
[redacted]
President
merchants' Credit Guide Company

[A default letter is provided here which indicates that the business has not responded to you directly.  If you wish, you may update it before sending it.]
Revdex.com:
At this time, I have not been contacted by Merchants' Credit Guide Company regarding complaint ID...

[redacted].
Regards,
[redacted]

Revdex.com:
I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me.
Sincerely,
[redacted]

Complaint: [redacted]
I am rejecting this response because:
Sincerely,
[redacted] I have never been in collection from this co. Issue about 7-14-14 !!!! . I guess they are confused between two different people with same name .

Ms. [redacted] account of her experience with our company is completely inaccurate.  Ms. [redacted] has two accounts placed for collection with our company, one since 12/17/15 and the other since 8/11/16.  After several attempt to contact her by mail and telephone, the first response we...

received from Ms. [redacted] was in the form of a complaint filed with the CFPB on 11/11/16 claiming she has asked us repeatedly for validation of the debts.  Again, we never received any response or request from Ms. [redacted] until this CFPB complaint.  In response to that complaint, we sent her the required account documentation that included itemized statements of each account and the signed consent to treatment and admissions agreement.  We have NOT received this correspondence back as undelivered.  Now she has file an additional complaint with the CFPB and the Revdex.com claiming she never received the information after repeated attempts requesting the information.  She requested we upload the information to the CFPB complaint portal.  Because of the sensitive nature and personal health information included in the documentation, we cannot do that.  I have asked Ms. [redacted] if we could email the documentation to her private email address.  I never received a response.  Today, I am sending certified mail - which I am not required to do under the law - the account documentation to Ms. [redacted] at the address provided in her complaints. We are not in violation of any laws nor any rights of Ms. [redacted] under the laws she inaccurately cites.  She is using the Revdex.com and the CFPB to try and bully us into deleting these items from her credit report.   [redacted], PresidentMerchants' Credit Guide Company

We received Ms. [redacted]'s letter on the 24th of July and we responded to her request on 8/1/17 providing the required account information, mailed to her address provided in this complaint.  Ms. [redacted] knows who the creditor is and what this debt is for.  We are more than willing to work with...

Ms. [redacted] to find a manageable resolution to this account.  We await her call.   [redacted], PresidentMerchants' Credit Guide Company

Thank you for the opportunity to respond to Mr. [redacted] concerns.  We received a $1,403.00 account for collection from our client on 1/12/15.  After several attempts to contact Mr. [redacted] we received a letter from Mr. [redacted] on 4/20/15 informing us to Cease and Desist contact and that his only...

income is Social Security and he could only send $10 to $20 a month.  At that time we closed Mr. [redacted] account from further collection attempts.  On 4/23/15, 5/4/15, 5/20/15, 6/23/15, and 7/13/15 we received Consumer Dispute Verifications from the credit bureaus to which we verified and responded to the credit bureaus.  At no time have we received a direct dispute from Mr. [redacted] asking for the documentation as referred to in his complaint.  On 6/23/15, we began receiving monthly payments of $35.00 from Consumer Credit Counseling.  We have received a total of 10 payments of $35.00 dollars each.  Mr. [redacted] balance is now $1,053.00.  There have not been any fees or interest added by our company.  There have been no violations of any collection laws.  The Statute of Limitations in Hawaii is 6 years from the last date of service or payment.  The Statute of Limitations prohibits anyone from pursuing the collection of a debt by filing a lawsuit, or threatening to file a lawsuit, to collect the debt.  It does not preclude the attempt to collect voluntary payments.  We have not filed a lawsuit nor have we threatened to file a lawsuit.  The last payment received on this account was 4/20/16.  We will continue to adhere to Mr. [redacted] Cease and Desist request, though we will send Mr. [redacted] the account documentation requested here.  At this time, we are unable to remove this collection item from Mr. [redacted] credit reports.[redacted], PresidentMerchants' Credit Guide Co.

Thank you for the opportunity to respond to Mr. [redacted] concerns.  Upon receipt of the complaint, we contacted our client and asked them to review Mr. [redacted]' account.  Upon review, the account was sent to us in error.  We have closed and returned the account, deleting all reference of...

the collection item from his credit report - it generally takes a few days for the credit bureaus to update their files.  In addition, we are sending a letter to Mr. [redacted] to confirm this deletion.[redacted]President

So that we can close this account due to identity theft, we would need Ms. [redacted] to submit an affidavit of Identity theft, a police report that indicates the identity theft resulted in these two accounts being fraudulently opened in her name, and a copy of a picture ID.  Upon receipt, we will...

be happy to investigate and confirm the identity theft with our client and close the account.  Thank you.

Thank you for the opportunity to respond to Ms [redacted] concerns. We received Ms. [redacted] request for information on 9/26/16. We promptly requested the account documentation from our client. We received the information from our client on 10/20/16 and mailed it to Ms. [redacted] on 10/21/16 to the address...

provided here. We never received any returned mail as undelivered.  [redacted], President Merchants' Credit Guide Co.

Ms. [redacted] is incorrect in her understanding of the law as well as our obligations under the laws she cites.  On 7/9/16, we sent to Ms [redacted] our initial letter informing her of her rights under the law and we provided the "mini-miranda."  She was also advised in the letter that the...

account may be reported to the credit bureau.  In addition, Ms. [redacted] is incorrectly under the impression that we purchased this account from the original creditor.  We did not.  The original creditor remains the owner and current creditor of this account.  Nevertheless, in the interest of consumer relations, we have deleted the collection item from Ms. [redacted] credit reports and we are sending her a letter confirming said deletion.   Dan [redacted], PresidentMerchants' Credit Guide Company

Upon receipt of Mr. [redacted] rejection, I followed up with the Orthopaedic group for the details of the insurance payment.  They verified that Mr. [redacted] is correct, that there was no remaining balance on the accounts after the insurance payment for the accounts placed with us for collection.  Again, the Orhtopaedic account has been closed and removed from Mr. [redacted] credit report.  As for the [redacted] account, [redacted] was sold to another company over a year ago.  The account information we needed to verify Mr. [redacted] accounts was archived.  When the request was made to retrieve the signed financial policy, they could not locate the document.  With that, I informed [redacted] that we were closing the account and removing it from Mr. [redacted] credit reports.  Which we did.   We have verified with all three credit bureaus, [redacted], and [redacted], that these collection items have been deleted.  If Mr. [redacted] is using a third-party credit monitoring service to monitor these deletions, they are not up-to-date, real-time with the credit bureaus.  If he wants to verify the deletions, he will have to verify directly with the credit bureaus. I apologize to Mr. [redacted] for the miscommunication with our clients.

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2014/08/26) */
Thank you for the opportunity to respond to Mr. [redacted]'s concerns. First, Mr. [redacted] is confused about what our relationship is with our client, [redacted] Hospital. We are the second collection agency that this account has...

been referred to. We do not own this debt and never have. After the first agency was unsuccessful in collecting the account, it was closed with them and then referred to us. We are authorized to collect this account. That can be confirmed with the patient accounting department of the hospital. It doesn't matter if Mr. [redacted] pays us directly, as he has in the past, or pays the hospital - as he is now doing. One of our responsibilities is to report this account to the credit bureau. When the account is paid in full, we must report the account as paid in full.
Clearly, Mr. [redacted] has demonstrated through his consistent payments that his intentions are good and he will pay this account in full. Mr. [redacted] indicates through his complaint that there has been some misunderstanding of the circumstances. In light of these considerations and in the interest of consumer relations, we will delete the trade line from Mr. [redacted]'s credit reports. A letter confirming this deletion will be sent to Mr. [redacted].
I hope this clears up some of the confusion and addresses Mr. [redacted]'s concerns.
[redacted]
President
Merchants' Credit Guide Company

Thank you for the opportunity to respond to Ms. [redacted] concerns.  I am sorry Ms. [redacted] feels she was treated unfairly.  We have reviewed the call.  Though we know Ms. [redacted] circumstances are difficult, a $20/month payment schedule would take 39 months to resolve this...

account.  Nevertheless, we will agree to a $20/month payment schedule due to hardship.  We ask that she try to accelerate the payment schedule if circumstances improve.  We have tried calling several times since receiving Ms. [redacted] complaint to set up the arrangement, but we have not yet received a return phone call.  She can call the Manager directly at ([redacted].  He is aware of the situation.[redacted]
President
Merchants' Credit Guide Co.