Have an issue with HCFS? Need help?
Are you being harassed by a debt collector? Is someone from HCFS contacting you every day, or multiple times per day, by phone, mail, email, or Facebook? Are they threatening to sue? We explain all about HCFS and whether they are legitimate and what to do if they contact you.
HCFS is short for Health Care Financial Services, Inc. One of the services they provide is billing Management Services and collections services. They offer diligent collections processes specifically for the healthcare industry, providing patients with favorable payment plans, according to their website.
If you owe legitimate debt, HCFS is a legitimate company that will try and collect, so yes, you should pay them. However, even legitimate companies have been known to sometimes act unfairly and violate things like the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA). So if you have been harassed or treated unfairly, consider filing a complaint or working with an attorney.
Yes, HCFS is a legitimate company.
They are not. They offer many financial services for the healthcare industry, one of which is debt collections.
Don’t assume you can ignore HCFS. If you continue to ignore them, they can file a judgement against you or sue you in court to get the money back.That said, even though they are a legitimate company, HCFS sometimes makes mistakes or violates the most recent FDCPA regulations about when and how they contact you. If this happens, you can share your complaints with outside attorneys, or file complaints with the government. You can get legal help to sue the collection agency if that is insufficient.
HCFS collects for the healthcare industry.
If HCFS is calling you and you don’t think you have debt, you need to send them a request for validation. You have 30 days from the first point of contact to ask the company for authenticity, verifying the legitimacy of the debt. You might not realize you actually have debt, or it might be a mistake. What happens more and more often today is people get a new cell phone number but that number belongs to someone else previously and is associated with an account sent to collections.If HCFS can’t prove the legitimacy of the debt and provide you with evidence that it’s yours, they have to stop trying to collect. If they don’t send you the appropriate response to your request for validation, you can send them a communication called insufficient validation.
In some situations you know the debt was yours at some point, but isn’t anymore. This might be a situation where you already paid it off. If you think you already paid the debt that HCFS is calling about, do the same thing. Asked the company to validate the debt by sending them a request for a validation letter. You have to do this within 30 days of your first point of contact. They might be operating with incorrect information from your credit report. So, take the time to double check your credit report as well. If you see that it has debt you have already paid, present your evidence to the credit reporting agencies and ask them to fix it.
As a debt collector, some of the laws that HCFS must follow include the FCRA, the FDCPA, and the TCPA.
That alphabet soup stands for the Fair Credit Reporting Act, which gives you rights to help ensure your credit report remains accurate; the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, which protects you from being abused and deceived by debt collectors; and the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, which limits robocalls and other telephone spam.
If you think any of these consumer protection laws may apply to your situation, tell us about it.
If you believe the debt HCFS is calling about has expired, you want to do the same thing: check your records and at the same time, send HCFS a request for a validation letter. There is a different statute of limitations for each type of debt, so you want to check your records and check your credit report to make sure the debt actually is expired. Sometimes companies like HCFS think they are collecting on a legitimate debt when they aren’t, or they never bothered to check in the first place. If there was a mistake, they should be updated but if the debt has expired, you can send them a cease communications notice. An attorney can help you with this.
There are a lot of ways you can try to settle for less with HCFS. Firstly, you need to understand that debt collectors usually don’t own the debt they are calling about. Instead, they work with other companies who own the debt and collect on behalf of those companies. They often get a percentage of what they collect or a flat fee for their services. Debt buyers by comparison actually purchase the debt for pennies on the dollar, sometimes literally $0.01 for every dollar of debt originally owed.That’s just the companies themselves. The employees who actually call you are typically minimum-wage employees who get a bonus if they settle an account. So, they are financially incentivized to help you reach a settlement. All of this information and any evidence of financial hardship can be used to help you settle for less.
If you owe a legitimate debt, the best way to get rid of them is to settle with them. If you don’t think you owe any money, you can ask HCFS for a validation letter. You can try to settle for less if the debt is legitimate and if it isn’t, you can send the company a letter of insufficient validation. These are all things that attorneys can help you with.
If your debt is current and legitimate, yes they can sue you. However, some companies like to sue sooner than others. They can’t just sue you right away if they haven’t tried to contact you and collect on the debt, but if you ignore them then it’s more likely that they can and will sue you.However, debt collectors like HCFS are prohibited from suing or threatening to sue consumers for payment on a debt that is past the statute of limitations, although they can still ask for payment past that expiry date.
No other companies own them.
The current CEO is Jolanta Swiatek.
According to Bloomberg, HCFS is headquartered in Flowood, MS.
HCFS collects for the healthcare industry.
Employees are paid an hourly wage and they get a commission. So the people who actually call you have a financial incentive to settle with you especially if a payday is just a few days away. What types of bonuses and other incentives they are given fluctuate regularly so they might be willing to negotiate for a lesser settlement when it’s more favorable for their next payday.
If you have recently checked your credit score and saw something labeled “HCFS” on your credit report, you had an account that was sent to collections, likely labeled as delinquent. If you have a delinquent account that you settle, it will remain on your account for 7 years with a zero balance. However, if you are working toward a settlement with HCFS you or an attorney can negotiate for a “tradeline deletion” where you have the account removed from your credit score entirely.
You don’t need a lawyer to deal with HCFS, but it makes things a lot easier. A lot of people are much more comfortable hiring a lawyer simply because it reroutes communication. Instead of you being the center of multiple phone calls, text messages, or social media communication attempts each day, that gets sent to your attorney’s office. What’s more, attorneys know when your rights have been violated, how to follow up if they have, and what letters to send when mistakes are made.
The FDCPA uses the word “verify,” but some other organizations use the word “validate.” No matter which word is used, it can mean two things. First, You “validate” a debt by sending a letter to HCFS officially asking them for information that would confirm the validity of the debt. You or an attorney must do this within 30 days from the first time they contact you.Second, HCFS then “validates” the debt on their end by providing you with this information. Once they get your letter they have to legally stop any attempts to collect on the debt until they have verified the debt. If they don’t follow the law or they are unable to verify it, they have to stop bothering you. Once they receive your letter you should get a response within 30 days.
A settlement with HCFS can be reached in as little as a few weeks or even a couple of years depending on how complex your situation is. Most of the time it only takes a few months if you are able to communicate regularly, reach a settlement agreement, and provide payment for the agreement. Obviously this process takes longer if you are trying to prove that the debt they are calling you about is incorrect, or if you have to negotiate for things like financial hardship.
What you offer is based on your financial situation. On average companies try to collect between 40% and 80% of the total amount you owe. However, you can try to settle for less based entirely on your financial situation.
If you ignore attempts to contact a legitimate debt, yes, they can sue you but in order to take money from your bank account they need a default judgment against you. So it won’t be a surprise, but it will take time for them to get permission from a judge to liquidate assets like money in your bank account in order to repay the debt.
You can ignore HCFS, but you shouldn’t. Even if you don’t think the debt is accurate, or you already paid it off, it can be much more challenging to deal with the company if they try to sue you compared to dealing with them when they first contact you. What’s more, proving that a mistake was made or a debt is inaccurate has to be done within 30 days of the first point of contact, so it’s best to respond sooner rather than later to figure out what’s going on and what steps you should take thereafter.
When debt collection agencies like HCFS get a new account from the original lender or from a third-party debt collector, they get your contact information.
Yes, you can probably pay your debt to HCFS with a credit card. Depending on the card you might be charged a processing fee for using a credit card.
Paying off collections will improve your credit score long-term. The longer you postpone reaching a settlement and paying off any type of debt, the longer it stays on your credit report and hurts your credit score. If you reach an agreement with HCFS, that delinquent account will remain on your credit report for another seven years unless you negotiate for a tradeline deletion to have it removed. Even if you don’t negotiate for the trade line deletion, that 7 year period doesn’t start until you pay off collections, so every step you take toward paying down your debt is a good one when it comes to your credit score.
No. It doesn’t just go away after seven years, it goes away once it expires. The expiration date is based on the type of debt and the state. Not all debt qualifies for expiration, like student loan debt which never goes away. A statute of limitations or SOL exists for each type of debt and all qualifying debt does legitimately expire at the end of the statute of limitations which means collections agencies cannot sue you to get the money back or even threaten to sue you. However, they can still ask you nicely (or sometimes not so nicely) until you send a cease communications letter.
There are many different types of bankruptcies for which you can file. It depends entirely on your financial situation. If you decide to file for bankruptcy, the process can take many years and involves a lot of negotiation with your creditors and other bankruptcy professionals. If you file for bankruptcy, qualifying debt will go away after you fulfill all of the terms of your bankruptcy. This does not apply to any debt you accumulate after you go into an agreement for bankruptcy. So if you file for bankruptcy and then you take on new debt 1 year after, that new debt doesn’t go away when you finish the terms of your bankruptcy. This also is not a fast process either. Most people end up filing Chapter 13 Bankruptcy which can take 5 years or longer of regular, monthly payments made to your creditors. Missing even a single payment can result in your entire bankruptcy case being thrown out and you having to pay all of your debt in full.
For a debt that has already been paid, is expired, or inaccurate, you can contact the credit reporting agencies to get the debt removed from your credit report or edited. If you enter into a settlement agreement with HCFS, a tradeline deletion can remove it from your credit report.
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