craigdailypress.com

grannyrett (Anonymous) says…

nativegirl-Please keep us updated on this. The hospital should help you. Hope they will. It is because of their business arrangement with NCO that you are in this mess. They should be the ones to get you out of it.
Samantha-What do you have to say about this? Seems like you should contact the credit reporting agencies and let them know what NCO is up to. Nativegirl can't be the only one that NCO is doing this to.

nativegirl (Anonymous) says…

Ok, here's an update on good old NCO Financial. I posted a problem I had with their billing practices a while back. I got that resolved, and was assured that my account was paid in full. I had that confirmed by TMH. It was all good…..
Until this week. I'm now getting nightly computer generated phone calls from NCO Financial, stating they are trying to collect a debt. Great! Except that I don't owe anything. Not a dime, not a cent, nothing, zip, zilch! I know financial issues aren't usually made public, but I am not in the habit of having to deal with credit collection folks and didn't realize how scummy this particular agency is until tonight. Anyway, then I check my credit report. No big surprise there, I find that after i paid the bill in full (in Feb 08) , NCO FInancial placed a negative listing on my credit report for the same lousy $68 bucks on 04-08 they received from me back on Feb. 25, 2008, claiming the bill is unpaid as of this date. Sound fishy? I say this stinks. So anyway, just as a warning to anyone still dealing with these people…document, document, document. I plan to cover all of my bases, starting with the complaint I filed tonight with the FTC.
I decided to do a little search of the internet for NCO Financial. No surprise here either. They come up on a list of thousands of websites for engaging in illegal and unethical billing and collection practices.
I'm posting this to warn people who may be dealing with this company. My experience with them has been pretty disgusting, they are lowlifes of the worst order because they lie, lie, and lie some more.
What they do is this: They send out bills, then you pay, then they tell you everything is ok. Then they wait a couple or a few months, send out another bill stating you still owe. By this time, I guess they figure you either forgot you already paid the bill, or they pull this separate account number crap that they pulled on me, and re-charge the same bill more than once. If you do manage to catch on, and document that you have paid everything owed, they then wait a little longer, put the paid bill on your credit report and hope you'll be forced to pay it yet again to get the darned thing off.
Well, obviously my next communication is going to be with the credit reporting agencies to get this bogus notation off my credit history. If all of this documentation doesn't clear things up I may be forced to hire a lawyer to get these people to stop trying to scam me out of money I clearly do not owe them.
Bottom line is this: If NCO is hounding you and you don't owe any bills, fight them. Fight them with documentation, don't talk to them on the phone, insist all communication be through mail, and most importantly, once you have everything documented, report them!
I hope this helps others who are being scammed by this lousy excuse for a credit collections company!

Globe (Anonymous) says…

Native Girl,

Thank the TMH financial office once again. They keep saying they are doing great things and blame all our problems on other people. Rest assured you still haven't heard the last of it. You will get lip service from them because no one knows what they are doing. I was sent to collections from them for peanuts. Not because I owed them money, but because they couldn't get my bill right. I think they get their staff from a temp agency. I can order a Big Mac and get it right, but when I order a blood test they screw it up faster than Superman replacing a light bulb. They can't even get your bill right and we are trusting them with our lives. I met the guy in charge of their finance at the bar the other night and he is a real doozy. When you push as much booz as I do you can tell a real class act.

nativegirl (Anonymous) says…

Geez… what a day! I don't know whether to laugh or kick myself. At any rate, I intend to follow this through to the bitter end and get these jerks off my back. I just hope anyone else having this problem can at least learn from my experience. Honestly I can't blame TMH for the way NCO is acting. From reading the complaints online (and there are more than one person could read in a lifetime, trust me) it looks like these clowns have been doing dirty business for years and years. If you wonder what I'm talking about just do a web search for them and boy, will you get more info you want to know. From what I've seen as far as complaints, it looks like companies and hospitals get lured in and then NCO sets about ruining their business relationships by harassing, making untold numbers of phone calls, disregarding Cease and Desist notices, and breaking every rule the law has governing collection agencies. It also looks like the companies that hire them dump them pdq due to customer complaints. FYI I have let TMH know what NCO is doing and am giving them a change to help get these goons out of my hair. Pending the outcome of that request, I'll withhold judgement and see what they're going to do to clean up this mess. Talk about opening Pandora's box!

grannyrett (Anonymous) says…

Native-Was not bitching! Since the hospital went with NCO, and NCO seems to have a habit of doing this to people, then the hospital should help. I have always found Sam to be on top of things, and just thought that maybe she could run interference for nativegirl. Who knows how many people this has happened to? Maybe if the businesses that have used NCO all complained to the BBB, something would get done faster. Just a thought.

nativegirl (Anonymous) says…

Native, I agree with you that this is not TMH's fault. I'm pretty sure if they had known then what they probably know now about NCO they would never have signed them on. Unfortunately I'm betting a bunch of other people are having problems with them that are a lot worse than this petty crap they're pulling on me.

I have cooled off quite a bit since this got to me last night, and now I have to say that when I look over my credit report how ridiculous this NCO bunch is. By putting a 68 buck notation on a 30 year history of consistently reliable credit, they really, in all honesty, look absolutely like the pathetic, vindictive losers they must really be. I can't imagine a company with any integrity whatsoever acting like these people are. Pretty ugly bunch in my opinion.

Having said that, how they're going to get this genie back into the bottle, I don't know.

AltitudeAdjustment (Anonymous) says…

Good point Native. It does seem like the negative is often focused on. Those in the trenches at TMH have always done the best they can to provide great service. Just becuase management makes a poor decision does not reflect on the individuals workers them self. The business office ladies are great, knowledgeable women, who work hard to get things right, just like the nurses and other care givers. When ever you contract with an outside organization, whether that be Poznet or NCO you can have bad outcomes. The important thing is that if a problem occurs it gets fixed as quickly as possible. Nativegirl - I am not familiar with NCO but I will look them up onthe computer as you suggest. How long ago did the hospital quite using NCO? If handled properly by the hospital it shouldn't take more than 30 days to have the who matter behind you. Keep us informed.

grannyrett (Anonymous) says…

nativegirl-I put NCO in my search engine. WOW! How are they still in business? It seems crazy that the hospital would do business with them without doing any research into their business practices!

CindyLou (Anonymous) says…

I googled NCO just as you recommended Nativegirl and almost ALL of the responses talk about NCO poor practices, complaints, and bad reviews. The only website that says any thing good about NCO is the NCO websit. So how did the hospital pick this group to do collections? I am amazed in this day and age how people don't do their homework before they do business with someone. In such a small community why would anyone go with a predatory collection agency.

highway1340 (Anonymous) says…

“TMH made a bad choice going with, I agree now, a predatory company which was dropped like a rock once TMH had enough people calling in with problems: it was a mistake and every human on this planet makes them.” We sure here this a lot with this group wouldn't you agree Native?

Maybe they don't make anymore bad choices than the next business, but is this what we should prepare ourselves to hear if the hospital can't afford to pay the very public debt on the new hospital? They “made a bad choice” sorry they can't pay the debt “it was a mistake and every human on this planet makes them.” Sounds like too easy of a cop-out.

When poor business decisions are made the average business goes out of business they don't just tax and spend - because that is an unsustainable model of business. When my brother looked at using a collection agency for his business he researched it long and hard to find the right organization, because he couldn't afford to make a mistake in this matter. He didn't have a quarter million dollars to throw away if he chose the wrong one.

STANHATHHORN (Anonymous) says…

Did anyone notice that TMH 2007 audited financials were on the agenda of last Wednesday's hospital board meeting? The miserable CDP did print the agenda, but not the results. You all remember the claims of a $1 million dollar profit. Then that number was finally admitted by Samantha to be only $28,000. But wait…wait… wait, it was actually a ($286,172) LOSS!! But, as Native says “it was a mistake and every human on this planet makes them”. We all know what motivates the CDP, but what keeps our hospital board on this impossible mission? Are they just that uninformed or is there something we don't know? Also in todays news our HUD secretary resigned, it's a mess and will undoubtedly trickle down. Finally, why is there never a response from TMH, words speak louder than coffee!!

getagrip (Anonymous) says…

Native….I never thought this would happen but I whole heartedly disagree with you. The Memorial Hospital needs to step up to the plate….seriously look at their staff…and accept some responsibility. I am all for having a hometown hospital that I could count on….but thats not happening. They first use a collection company that not only defrauded them but also defrauded many many members of the community. They also allow one doctor that I know of for sure has multiple malpractice lawsuits against him to continue to practice.

Let me take a moment to tell you of MY personal experiences with your hospital:

I have watched the whole evolution of the new hospital and not said anything:.and yes I voted for the new hospital.

However, I think that one of the main concerns from the community as a whole is::.will a new hospital bring new and better doctors. I hope so because I for one am tired of driving to Steamboat to ensure that myself and my family gets quality care.

I could tell you multiple horror stories of care your hospital dished out:just from my family. If I were to include my extended family and friends, we would need a month to discuss it. Stories including surgeries given that weren't needed, broken bones ignored and diagnosed as sprains, wrong medications given, and horrible bed sided manners.

Your doctors could do alot themselves to help your public image. Letting patients who happen to come in the emergency room during a shift change wait 30 minutes for the next doctor is not a good way to get people to come back. And yes:this really happened. They were overheard saying it would be better if the patient could wait as the present doctor really needed to leave on time that night. I can assure you the patient used that 30 minutes to drive to Steamboat. My personal favorite: a close personal MALE friend was billed for a hysterectomy. And yes…I actually saw this bill.

Any other business you frequent has to have quality customer service. Why should the hospital be any different? I am not talking about your CNA's or your Nurses because I truly believe they do the best they can with what they have to work with.

Anyone who reads the Daily Press can get a feel for how skeptical the community is just by comparing birth records:.Steamboat vs. The Memorial Hospital.

If you truly want your community to stand behind you I suggest that you start with a series of compassion and ettiquette lessons for your exisisting doctors. Just because they have a higher education does not give them the right to shun good hard working people.

Good luck with your new hospital and start recruiting.

nativegirl (Anonymous) says…

Update…

I have been in communication with TMH on this issue. It appears they have actually gotten most of the problem resolved. They have verified that NCO did get my payment and it was turned over to the emcare er docs as it should have been, although quite a while after I sent it to NCO. It appears that when TMH followed up with EMCARE verifying that they had their money and told EMCARE that NCO was still calling me demanding payment on a paid account, EMCARE must have told NCO to back off because as of last week, the telephone calls from NCO have mysteriously stopped.

I also received an explanation of how this happened in the first place that I think is well worth posting here. This is an excerpt from the letter I got from TMH:

“Back in November of 2005, TMH contracted with Northwest Colorado
Emergency Room Physician (EMCARE) to staff the ER physician coverage & handle the billing for the ER physician charges. EMCARE, unfortunately, uses NCO Financial as their collection agent. That contract is between EMCARE & NCO Financial. Please understand, NCO Financial is NOT a collection agency for The Memorial Hospital and TMH has no influence on their handling of EMCARE patient accounts. As of May 1, 2007 we no longer contracted with EMCARE and all ER Physician charges now are included with your billing from TMH.”

So it appears that it wasn't TMH's choice to end up with NCO collecting bills, but EMCARE's choice that caused the problem. At any rate, at least now I understand what happened, and TMH did a good job for me of getting most of the problem resolved…

As to the listing on my credit report, well, I guess that's just going to sit there until it expires in 2011. Not to worry though, I found out through a recent transaction that lenders are fully aware of NCO's lousy intimidation tactics and if you have otherwise a clean credit history, they tend to ignore NCO's “harassment postings.” Aggravating, but it isn't ending up hurting me and it is pretty clear that NCO's disgustingly crappy reputation is widely known throughout the lending industry.

Bottom line is this…I got a quick response from TMH, they did everything to resolve as much of the problem as they were able, and they kept me updated during the process. My recommendation to anyone with NCO harassing them is to document the hell out of your payments and let EMCARE or TMH know if they're hassling you for money you already paid.