Global recovery alliance

[Glasgowg32]

I'm receiving letters from the above company regarding a medical bill in the states which was a month ago that my insurance are refusing to pay. Does this mean that the hospital have sold the debt on already? They're asking for payment in 21 days which I can't pay and the bill is crazy for the treatment I got. Has anyone dealt with this company and what's the best way to go about this?

[PallasAthena]

Sorry no experience of this but just to say that from their website Global Recovery Alliance don't appear to be debt buyers,. I would think they are debt collectors for the American hospital.

Approximately how much money are the hospital claiming?

[echat11]

Can you provide more details, we need to now what happened? Why your insurance won't pay?
More details needed.

[oorya]

Hi,

Just a few years ago I had a serious health issue, we were in Florida and as we were not Americans the local medical centres did not want to know considering it would be an insurance claim for any treatment so we went to a local hospital. As it was an evening the doctor on call confirmed the problem but there wasn't a senior consultant to advise so all I actually received was an ultrasound scan as it would have needed a proper opthalmic doctor or consultant to do a full exam and offer treatment.

We left the hospital and tried contacting the consultant the next day but he was out of town. My insurance company was not prepared to sanction the procedure in Florida without a full consultancy as all I had was a discharge notice from the hospital and as I needed treatment within a few days we travelled home early and had the procedure done the day we landed back in the UK. Whilst I was laid on the bed in the Florida hospital a young man wheeled in a trolley with a machine on it and I wondered what he was going to do with that. It turned out to be a very large credit card reader so as I lay there I could pay the insurance excess.

I gave all the details to my insurance company and as far as I was told they had covered all the costs for my brief visit to the hospital in Florida. Anyway a few months later I received a letter from Global Recovery Alliance stating that my insurance company had paid their part and I was left with my remaining balance of a few hundred dollars. I contacted my insurance company and they confirmed they had settled the bill in full and to ignore this letter or if I wanted to reply to them telling them to contact my insurance company and that is what I did as well as ask for details of this so called debt.

I have no idea if they contacted my insurance company and they didn't send details of the debt but just kept sending the very same letter demanding this supposed debt. I think I received at least 6 copies one every 3 months or so and continued to ignore them. Anyway I have since moved so I sent one back saying no longer at this address long before I actually moved and I didn't receive anymore and they will not have any chance of finding where I now live.

My thought and that of my insurance company was that this claim was a scam.

[oorya]

As this was a few years ago, I cannot remember who I spoke to or if I received advice on-line but I don't think Global Recovery Alliance has any right to make a legal claim in the UK. If they had I am sure they would have done something more rather than just copy and paste the very same letter every few months and it was over 6 years ago.