Recent Feedback
In Texas how much freedom do debt collectors have in harrassing you about medical bills?
Can you be a little more specific in your question, I'm not sure what you are asking? Also, is this a collection agency or the actual provider?
It looks like you are offline so I will save and exit and we can continue this in Q and A format
providers saying they are going to turn over to collection. I am considering consolidating all my medical bills but not all are in the hands of collectors yet. I dont want to because it will cost additional money to pay consolidation company. Can I just ask the collection people to stop harrassing me and do they have to? Or what other legal rights do they have to continue calling, mailing, contacting me at work etc?
You really can't stop the providers from calling but you can stop the collection agencies.
Whether it is a provider or a collection agency send them a letter by certified mail with the following language:
“Please be advised that, as I have informed you, I dispute the validity of this debt. Pursuant to the state and federal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act(s) I hereby instruct you to cease all communications with me regarding the alleged debt. Any further attempt by you to contact me will be construed as an intentional violation of the law.”
After that the collection agencies have to stop calling you. The providers don't, but most of them don't know that and so they will.
Ok, but I dont dispute the validity of the debt - I am not able to afford to pay them all.
Do I still have recourse against constantly being contacted?
Not until you send that letter. Don't worry about the language that says you dispute the validity of the debt. You can always pay it anyway. You can remove that sentence if you want to but leave the rest of it as is. You have to send them this letter to make them stop contacting you.
Experience: Began practicing law in 1992
Our chat has ended, but you can still continue to ask me questions here until you are satisfied with your answer. Come back to this page to view our conversation and any other new information. What happens now? If you haven’t already done so, please rate your answer above. Or, you can reply to me using the box below.