Mysterious Unpaid Medical Debt on Credit Report

[cbg1027]

My husband and I went to apply for a loan today and when they pulled his credit report, there was an item that we have no clue what it is.

The only information on the report was that the item is an unpaid medical bill from 2012 for $69 that went to collections. The only thing resembling a name of a collection agency is "GS, MEDICAL".

Does anyone know how we can try to find out what this item is? We have never (intentionally) not paid medical bills and I cannot figure out how to track down what exactly this item is, if we need to pay it, or dispute it!

Thanks DISers!

 

[yoopermom]

Something similar happened to us, except we made the mistake of "poking the beast" (aka trying to follow the paper trail and putting the collection agency on us). Our lawyer wrote a "cease and desist" type letter to the collection agency (it was past the expiration date for when they could go after us, but not every consumer would know that). The original medical group had washed their hands of it once it was sold off to collections (even though we actually had the paperwork to show that we had paid). In the long run, it really didn't affect our credit, even if it did irritate me to no end to see it out there.

Terri

 

[Kathryn Merteuil]

I got dinged like that a while back when trying to open a new bank account. They said I had bounced checks and owed some bank in Maryland. It's like yea, I have never even heard of that bank, and I have never been to Maryland. I had to contact the bank myself and they did their "investigation".... turns out they typed in somebody else's Social Security number wrong and it was my number getting associated with that other person's name. The guy on the phone called it a "fat finger incident". They sent a written letter for me to show as proof of their mistake until it was removed completely.

 

[aaarcher86]

Googling GS medical brought up hits for what looked like spine medical equipment. There's also a GS medical billing group.

There should be contact info on the credit report.

 

[arminnie]

I had a trip to the ER in 2010. I have great insurance which paid for everything that I knew about. Plus I pay my bills.

I found I had a collection in 2015. When I tried to pursue it I got no info at all. So I basically told them to xxxx it if they could not give me any info about why I owed this money. Didn't make any difference in my getting credit or a new mortgage.

 

[Pea-n-Me]

I've noticed that with medical care now, we're getting separately billed for all kind of "little things" that we didn't used to get billed for before. Some things we've gotten billed for recently have included a wrist splint, a knee brace, an ECG, pathology for a tissue sample, and we got a small bill we had no clue what it was for that when we looked into it it was from the Nurse Practiioner and Doctor group that had consulted when DH was in the hospital. So I wonder if you somehow got billed for something that you didn't realize. Did anyone in your household have spinal surgery or some type of spinal collar (maybe from an accident) back in 2012?

 

[Planogirl]

Often these medical collection agencies only report to one of the three credit bureaus. If you pursue this see if you can find out which one to save time. It might show a code such as EQ or EQF or EF for Equifax and so on.

This could be a collection agency called General Service Bureau. They do collect medical debts.

 

[cbg1027]

Thanks for the help everyone.

I got the bright idea today to get a copy of my husbands credit report from a different bureau than the one the bank used, and sure enough that had the name of the collection agency and the original medical group the bill came from. DH doesn't recall ever getting a bill, but it's entirely possible he did. The bill was from a Radiology group and dated about three months after DH was in a major car wreck. For $70, I think we will jut pay it so we can get it off his credit report, especially since we're planning to apply for mortgage in the next few years.

 

[Pea-n-Me]

^ It had to be, then, for a neck brace or something!

 

[2DisPrincesses]

I got dinged like that a while back when trying to open a new bank account. They said I had bounced checks and owed some bank in Maryland. It's like yea, I have never even heard of that bank, and I have never been to Maryland. I had to contact the bank myself and they did their "investigation".... turns out they typed in somebody else's Social Security number wrong and it was my number getting associated with that other person's name. The guy on the phone called it a "fat finger incident". They sent a written letter for me to show as proof of their mistake until it was removed completely.

This happened to my Husband. We went to open a checking account and they said he had too many bounced checks. When they too a closer look it was is SS# but the name on the account was Cheryl. Clearly he wasn't Cheryl so we opened our account.

 

[Kathryn Merteuil]

This happened to my Husband. We went to open a checking account and they said he had too many bounced checks. When they too a closer look it was is SS# but the name on the account was Cheryl. Clearly he wasn't Cheryl so we opened our account.

The name was entirely wrong associated w/my SSN too. The name was, let's just say it was a very obvious name not associated with my appearance. I looked they guy and said do I look like somebody named that to you?

After a lot of dragging their feet, growling and grumbling they let me open the account.