How do I dispute hospital charges on a credit report that were sent to the wrong insurance company?

My wife was treated on an outpatient basis at a local hospital in 2005. The hospital did not have her current insurance or contact information, so the bill was sent to neither us nor our insurance company. The hospital then submitted the bill to a collection agency with the outdated contact information. Thus, we were entirely unaware of the existence of these charges until we checked my wife's credit report this February. I believe that my wife either gave the hospital current information, which they failed to record, or that they did not ask her. Can we have the hospital recover this charge from the collection agency and re-submit it to our insurance company? Also, do we have valid grounds to dispute the charge with the credit reporting agency?

Public Comments

1. Send exactly what you wrote above, to the hospital. They will take action to resolve the issue. Count on it taking 1 to 2 months. I had a similar issue that didn't go to collections, but they billed the wrong insurance company (mine) in my case on a worker's comp claim.
2. Call the hospital and ask to speak to a billing supervisor. They should be able to straighten it out for you.
3. YOU WRITE A TOTAL 3 LETTERS TO EACH CREDIT BEURAU....DISPUTING THE CHARGES. TRANSUNION, EQUIFAX, AND EXPERIAN. ON MONDAY MAIL 3 OF THEM TO EACH CREDIT BUREAU. ON TUESDAY MAIL THEM TO EACH CREDIT BUREAU. ON WEDNESDAY MAIL THEM TO EACH CREDIT BUREAU. AND HOPE THAT WITH THE 3 LETTERS THAT YOU SENT TO EACH CREDIT BUREAU IN 3 DAYS, THAT A GOOD EMPLOYEE FOR THE CREDIT BUREAU WILL GET ONE OF YOUR 3 LETTERS AND REMOVE THE ITEM FROM YOUR CREDIT.