A year later, they finally overturned my unpaid account to the Russell Collection Agency.  I received a bill from the collection agency.  I called Blue-Cross Blue-Sheild to report that.  They looked into that. A few months later, Alexandria Physician Emergency Room finally received another claim check.  That was too late because they already filed for debt collection. What do they mean, too late? Too late for them, maybe, but not too late for This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it *They* should be getting a letter too and first. The hospital is the organization that can clear this thing up the fastest and they caused this. They may just not want to pay the collection agency its fee which posisbly maybe under their contract they are obligated to, so they didn't inform the collection agency they were paid. Meanwhile the collection agency is insiting (or pretending, on the what-have-we-got to-lose principle, that maybe the debt that was paid was some other debt (that's what this whole business of they should have paid the doctor is) that just happens to be for the exact same amount incurred on the exact same day, If he really wanted to play sharp, he might pay off the colledftion agency and then demand a refund from the hospital for the double payment. Or better, THREATEN to do that if they don't clear this up, and fast. It might cost the hospital more money and trouble to return the duplicate payment than to turn off the collection agency.Too late! The debt was paid. It's their bookeeping that was in disarray. Do you think the law is that if some company or organization mistakenly thinks they have not been paid, and they hire a collection agency, and then they discover and admit that they have been paid they can just blithely say then, it's too late???? There could be the makings of a nice class action lawsuit against the hospital perhaps, with punituve damages, although my ignorance may be showing. Sometimes the problem is figurinbg out who is most to blame. Another thing: How much money would a problem usually have to involve in order to interest a lawyer in taking up the case? And does it depend a lot on how well trod the path the lawyer would have to take is? How much for teh well trodden cases and how much for something more unusual?

By the way, I think the strongest case he has is against the hospital, That's for the lawyer to decide, not us. He needs a lawyer. He needs a lawyer with balls out the gazoo, with a reputation for taking on the local sacred cows and winning. I already noted how I tracked down such a lawyer in my area. I can't guarantee that he'll have the same results using that method, but it's worth a start.