These people went straight to calling my "I.C.E" contact about my relatively small outstanding bill for Overlake hospital. The bill was from about two years ago and for only $300. I have never received anything from them in the mail, nor have they called me directly. The person I spoke to when I returned the call was incredibly rude and she immediately became defensive and condescending when confronted with the fact that the ICE contact they called was not the person I listed as my emergency contact with Overlake Hospital. Typically, I just list my husband, but my parents are also listed as emergency contacts at another local hospital where I had two major surgeries in february 2015. When asked how she got my contact information, she repeatedly tried to change the subject to "when can you pay?" and I had repeat myself several times and was only given a less than completely honest response once I said to her, "look, I absolutely will not discuss anything with you until you tell me where you obtained that number." I forget her exact words, but she made a half assed attempt to feed me some line of garbage about how it was "part of the contact information in the file from Overlake Hospital" and when I told her "No, actually, that number is not a part of my contact information with anyone and is strictly an "In Case of Emergency" contact, but not with Overlake Hospital. At that point she tried to side-step and gave me some line about how "hospitals share information," which just seems ridiculous to me. This is not the first time I have ever had a past due medical bill get sent to collections. This is, however, the first time that I have ever had a collection agency contact my emergency contact period, let alone the emergency contact from another hospital! I don't know how these people managed to get a hold of this number that is a part of my medical records at another hospital (and I most certainly didnt authorize overlake hospital or their collection agency to poking around in my personal medical records!), but they did and they called that number before even attempting to contact me in any way.
In addition to having a condescending attitude towards me once I questioned her about their information gathering, she was also trying to intimidate me by saying things like she already had my address, that it was in my file right in front of her. This came about when she asked me to verify my address and my response to her was that "I will not discuss anything with you until you tell me how you obtained that number." I was fairly certain already that they had my address, given the way they contacted me, keeping it a "secret" was not why I wasn't wanting to "verify" it. She was trying to force me to talk with her further without revealing where they got the phone number. Really, the whole interaction was very much like she was a bully. She was rude, and was trying to duck and dodge the questions I had about how they obtain their information. And she ultimately hung up on me almost immediately after I told her that I didnt have the means to pay at the moment as I am still in school and not employed. She said (again, in a very condescending tone of voice), The best that I can do is make a note in your file. You have a wooooonderful evening." And hung up on me. I don't believe that I got an honest answer to my question and I am left with some major concerns about the security of my personal information.
I will be looking into the HIPAA laws and my right to privacy and following up on this by filing a report with the BBB as well as contacting the Attorney General and, if necessary, an attorney.
Accelerated Collection Service, Inc. Reviews
Repeating calls early in the morning well before a reasonable time to the point that i had to start blocking their robo dialer numbers
These people went straight to calling my "I.C.E" contact about my relatively small outstanding bill for Overlake hospital. The bill was from about two years ago and for only $300. I have never received anything from them in the mail, nor have they called me directly. The person I spoke to when I returned the call was incredibly rude and she immediately became defensive and condescending when confronted with the fact that the ICE contact they called was not the person I listed as my emergency contact with Overlake Hospital. Typically, I just list my husband, but my parents are also listed as emergency contacts at another local hospital where I had two major surgeries in february 2015. When asked how she got my contact information, she repeatedly tried to change the subject to "when can you pay?" and I had repeat myself several times and was only given a less than completely honest response once I said to her, "look, I absolutely will not discuss anything with you until you tell me where you obtained that number." I forget her exact words, but she made a half assed attempt to feed me some line of garbage about how it was "part of the contact information in the file from Overlake Hospital" and when I told her "No, actually, that number is not a part of my contact information with anyone and is strictly an "In Case of Emergency" contact, but not with Overlake Hospital. At that point she tried to side-step and gave me some line about how "hospitals share information," which just seems ridiculous to me. This is not the first time I have ever had a past due medical bill get sent to collections. This is, however, the first time that I have ever had a collection agency contact my emergency contact period, let alone the emergency contact from another hospital! I don't know how these people managed to get a hold of this number that is a part of my medical records at another hospital (and I most certainly didnt authorize overlake hospital or their collection agency to poking around in my personal medical records!), but they did and they called that number before even attempting to contact me in any way.
In addition to having a condescending attitude towards me once I questioned her about their information gathering, she was also trying to intimidate me by saying things like she already had my address, that it was in my file right in front of her. This came about when she asked me to verify my address and my response to her was that "I will not discuss anything with you until you tell me how you obtained that number." I was fairly certain already that they had my address, given the way they contacted me, keeping it a "secret" was not why I wasn't wanting to "verify" it. She was trying to force me to talk with her further without revealing where they got the phone number. Really, the whole interaction was very much like she was a bully. She was rude, and was trying to duck and dodge the questions I had about how they obtain their information. And she ultimately hung up on me almost immediately after I told her that I didnt have the means to pay at the moment as I am still in school and not employed. She said (again, in a very condescending tone of voice), The best that I can do is make a note in your file. You have a wooooonderful evening." And hung up on me. I don't believe that I got an honest answer to my question and I am left with some major concerns about the security of my personal information.
I will be looking into the HIPAA laws and my right to privacy and following up on this by filing a report with the BBB as well as contacting the Attorney General and, if necessary, an attorney.