Harrassment

janullrich

Folks, I am dividing my time between Germany and Ireland. I thought I paid a bill to the Sports Injury Clinic last year for a operation in April 2010. The insurer Aviva agreed with the clinic to pay for the op but I received a letter 3months later advising that the insurer was not responsible. Naturally I was upset with the issue and switched providers to VHI. I received a bill to my old address in Swords advising that I pay €356. I paid this in Germany in May last year but advised that I was not happy in doing so due to the fact that as far as I was concerned everything was paid but I would pay as long as nothing more was owed.

To cut a long story short, I received a phone call last Monday week from a debt collection company demanding payment for €702 and a letter was sent to my former address. It was a bolt out of the blue. I received the letter from my former address which I went over to last week and was discussing how to deal with it with my dad and girlfriend. It threatened court action for this amount which I know they can't do. I received 3 missed calls today all within a space of 5 minutes starting at 12:05pm. I also received a voicemail saying that they have contacted my dad who is a patient in the clinic (but completely independent) and advised him of the situation and unless I ring they will persue me further.

I am furious that he has contacted my father. I have worked in the collections game but this seems very much like bully boy tactics, and intimidation. I did not receive any previous letters before last Monday the 26th of March as I don't live at the address. Is there any legal recourse? If I pay I pay but this is not acceptable and he should not have contacted my father as he is 3rd party. I will leave it lye for the weekend to Tuesday but any advice would be much appreciated before I go further.

mitzicat

They are absolutely not allowed ever to share your personal information with anyone ever in the manner they shared your data with your father. Make a complaint about the debt collection company to the data commissioner:

http://www.dataprotection.ie/ViewDoc.aspfn=/documents/rights/RightsPlainEnglish.htm&CatID=16&m=r

Keep the voicemail as proof.

If the debt collector is a solicitor's firm, make a complaint to the law society.

mitzicat

Also, once your insurer agreed to pay for the OP the insurer was actually estopped from denying your claim - if they tried to deny it after you underwent the op.

janullrich

Thanks for that Mitzcat. I was so in shocked that I deleted the voicemail by mistake. My father has agreed to pay the hospital as he is a patient there at the moment and I will pay him back. My father advised me that the guy rung yesterday and asked where I was but did not share any information. I can only assume he got the details from the Sports Surgery Clinic. When I have not give authoration for him to ring my father is that still against data protection without the debt collector releasing any specific information?

Also do you mean that once the operation was done and dealt with, the insurer has to pay. I am furious that I have now got another bill after paying last year. Next month after paying they could demand €1000 for example. What is stopping them if I don't get a letter clearing this all up.

I rung Debt Recovery Solutions and advised that my father was dealing with the hospital. He got stroppy and said that the hospital have nothing to deal with it and that it is my bill and I will pay him. He also advised that he wants to meet me on Tuesday. I have no problems with that but don't want it to get nasty..

BrianD

There is something very sinister going on here and you should seek legal advice.

Assuming that you had no joint policy with your father there is absolutely no way that they should have approached him and put pressure on him to pay. In fact the debt collector should have no contact with your father and should not even know that he exists let alone gets treatment in the same hospital.

I would urge you to
a) Document everything that has happened to date and continue to do so
b) Instruct your father not to make any payments on your behalf and tell him not to answer or return any calls from the debt collector. It's your problem not his and he should not be dragged into it by this agency.
c) Seek legal advice
d) Generally create a stink with the insurer and the hospital because somebody in one of those two organisations gave this personal data about your father to a debt collector. Remind them of the law on this matter.

The debt agency will continue to threaten you but I doubt if they want the story that you have told to go in front of a judge because it is wrongdoing.

I would certainly find all correspondence regarding your original op and claim. This will be vital.

benway

Bear in mind, also:

Non-Fatal Offences Against the Person Act, 1997

11.—(1) A person who makes any demand for payment of a debt shall be guilty of an offence if—

(a) the demands by reason of their frequency are calculated to subject the debtor or a member of the family of the debtor to alarm, distress or humiliation, or

(b) the person falsely represents that criminal proceedings lie for non-payment of the debt, or

(c) the person falsely represents that he or she is authorised in some official capacity to enforce payment, or

(d) the person utters a document falsely represented to have an official character.

(2) A person guilty of an offence under this section shall be liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding £1,500.

janullrich

Thanks a million guys. I don't have any original documentation from the insurer and the hospital unfortunately as in moving and my disgust last year I either lost it or threw it away (my fault). However the information re the debt collector is very useful. I wonder does he know the law or if he is just trying it on!

Sardonicat

If you got confirmation from your Insurer that they would cover the procedure they have to pay for it.

Were you given this information over the phone? If so, demand the recording of the conversation you had with the customer service rep confirming they would cover you. Even if they don't normally cover this procedure or this clinic if confirmation was verbally expressed to you that they would cover it, they have to.

I worked as a sales advisor for a Health Insurer here and this was drilled into us. Never, ever tell a customer a procedure will be covered unless they provide a procedure code that we could double check. Otherwise the company could be liable for a procedure we don't normally cover.

Get back onto your health insurer ASAP and demand copies/trtanscripts of all conversations you had with them (they WILL still have them) and get legal advice also.

Good luck.