Man fights 5-year legal battle with debt collection company after doctor’s error
But what happened after a routine colonoscopy in 2012 changed all that.
He went in for the procedure after meeting his deductible for the year, and everything appeared to go well. In May 2013, he and his wife returned from a cruise to their Idaho Falls home to find a strange notice in their mailbox.
“It was a pretty generic letter that said, ‘Final notice. We’re taking you to court. You owe us $1,800: $900 for original debt and $900 for attorney fees,’” Neumeier recalls. “The next day I went into (the medical) office, and I told them somebody was using their name as a scam. They looked me up and said it is legitimate and from my colonoscopy.”
The doctor’s office never billed insurance, and it never showed up on an explanation of benefits. Not only that, someone put in their system that Neumeier lived on Skyline Drive when he in fact lived on Skyview Drive.
“I actually drove over to Skyline Drive and said, ‘This number doesn’t exist,’” Neumeier tells EastIdahoNews.com. “Eventually (the doctor’s office) turned it over to Medical Recovery Services, who kept billing the same address for months.”
Medical Recovery Services is an Idaho Falls-based debt collection agency. Local attorneys Bryan Smith and Bryan Zollinger pursue legal cases for the agency.