This morning I called BCA Financial Services, Inc., a collection agency in Miami, Florida. I have three bills here all dated November 3, 2011 and addressed to mom. Each one lists the physician Brenda H. Salter, a location of HMC Port Orange ED, and a service date of July 17, 2011.
I’ve never heard or seen that doctor’s name, and I don’t recall ever hearing of HMC Port Orange ED, either. One bill is for $207.00, one is for $500.00, and the third one is for $162.00. They all say the “specialty” is Emergency Services, so I assume it’s a visit she made to the ER.
All three have mom’s middle name spelled incorrectly as Albane instead of Albanese.
The man who answered the phone asked me to read him the account number on the bill. Each one has a different account number listed, so I started with the lowest one. He asked for the name on the account and I told him and spelled it for him, and he asked if I was her husband. I said that I was her son and he asked if she was available, because he was only allowed to talk to her.
I told him (nicely) that she had died and she was not married at the time. He said he was very sorry and asked if I was the executor of her estate. I told him that I was her son and that there was no estate to execute; that she died with no savings, no pension, no retirement plan, no Medicaid, and no health insurance. He asked me on what date she had died and I told him August 12th.
He again told me he was very sorry and that he would handle sending the bills, “back to Halifax.” I had no idea that these bills had anything to do with Halifax Hospital, so that was a surprise to me. I asked him if there was anything else I needed to do, and if he was going to handle updating all three of the bills I had, because they all had different account numbers.
He told me that he actually has fifty-five (55!) bills associated with mom’s account, and that he would update them all to indicate that she was deceased and that there is nothing more I need to do. He said Halifax or his company would call me if they needed anything else.
I didn’t tell him that nobody at his company or Halifax likely had my phone number. I probably should have done that, but it’s hard for me right now to worry about the accuracy of their accounting departments.