866-350-5482

I have been getting automated and live calls from this company -- Rubin and Rains? -- for Benoit Michelle.  It is a debt collection company looking for someone whom I don't know, nor do I care to know.  The messages are left on my voicemail.  I want the calls to stop.  Twice, I've called back to tell them to stop and desist.  What can I do to make them stop?????

New Jersey Corporate Office
Rubin & Raine
446 Rt. 35 South
Eatontown, New Jersey 07724
Telephone: 800-899-7246
Fax: 732-544-4795

Colorado Regional Office
Rubin & Raine
3033 S.Parker Road
Suite 1000
Aurora, CO 80014
Telephone: 866-224-7352
Fax: 303-755-7683
http://www.rubinandraine.com/

Bills shock ex-patients
Friday, October 24, 2008
Last updated: Wednesday October 29, 2008, 5:44 PM
BY LINDY WASHBURN
NorthJersey.com
STAFF WRITER

Hundreds of former patients of Pascack Valley Hospital were shocked to receive collection notices this week for bills they thought had long been paid.

Some of the bills go back to the 1980s, well beyond the six-year legal limit on debt collection. Others appear to have been settled by insurers, but not recorded in the hospital's books. And still others may never have been properly billed by the hospital as it sank into financial disarray.

A nun from Norwood received a bill from 1989, when she wasn't even in the hospital.

Hundreds, potentially thousands, of the collection notices have been mailed.

The Westwood hospital declared bankruptcy last year and closed on Nov. 21.

The debt collection letters were sent out on behalf a company that bought the rights to Pascack's accounts receivable last month at a federal Bankruptcy Court auction. The company paid $497,000 for the accounts, whose face value totaled more than $90 million. In effect, International Portfolio Inc. of West Conshohocken, Pa., paid about a half-cent per dollar of debt.

Any funds collected go to International Portfolio and the collection agency working on its behalf, Rubin & Raine of New Jersey, located in Eatontown and Colorado.

Craig Rose, a Hillsdale resident, received a collection notice for $1,443, a bill he believes was paid.

"This is completely absurd," he said. "I pay all my bills on time."

When he spoke to the collection agency, it offered to settle for half the amount. "They're getting nothing," Rose said.

Four other collection notices wound up in his mailbox recently, all for a previous occupant of the house, he said.

The collection notices, sent by Rubin & Raine, list an account number and a current balance, but not the date or type of service.

"This is an opportunity for you to resolve this debt," the notices say. "Payment via check by phone or certified funds in full will cease all collection activity."

The letter provides a toll-free number. A woman at that number who identified herself as Kim and said she was in the "executive offices" said the company would have no comment.

An attorney for International Portfolio noted that the accounts were purchased "with the approval of the court and the bankruptcy trustee."

If patients dispute the debt, said Bill Weiner of the Warrington, Pa., office of Fox Rothschild, "they should send a letter to the collection agency that corresponds with them, explaining the reasons for the dispute, together with any written documentation that would tend to support their position."

Recipients are concerned that their credit ratings will be affected, said an aide to Assemblywoman Charlotte Vandervalk, a Westwood Republican, whose office has received a "handful" of calls on the subject.

"It's a license to steal from these older people," said Laura Donnelly, whose mother, Katie Holder of Norwood, received a collection notice. "They're frantic."

One of the factors blamed in Pascack Valley's bankruptcy was its conversion to a new computer system, which led to a loss of billing revenue.

The hospital's records were "erroneous and poorly maintained," with errors increasing in frequency after the bankruptcy, Robert Mendel, the president of the former collections agency for Pascack Valley Hospital, vanGelderen Services Inc. of Chestnut Ridge, N.Y., told the court. His agency objected to the sale of the accounts receivable, and has filed a complaint against the estate of the bankrupt hospital.

Insurance payments were not credited to the accounts, so that patients would be billed for the full amount rather than at the discounted rate the insurer negotiated, Mendel said. Payments on accounts he had already collected were not reflected, so those patients could be subject to further, unnecessary collections and damage to their credit, he said.

Neither the state Department of Health nor the state Department of Banking and Insurance has become involved in the matter, representatives for each said.

Collection practices are regulated by the federal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. If individuals feel that they have been harassed by a debt collector, they should contact the state Attorney General's Office.

E-mail: washburn@northjersey.com

http://www.northjersey.com/news/health/Bills_shock_ex-patients.html

Send them a "drop dead" letter VIA certified mail and request a return receipt:


Date

Your Name
Mailing Address
Your City, State, Zip

Re: Notice to Cease Contact Regarding Debt for ______________________

Name of Collection Agency
Mailing Address
City, State, Zip

VIA CERTIFIED MAIL

I am notifying you in writing that your agency has contacted me regarding a debt for [name of person who collector is contacting you about]. No one by that name lives at my address or phone number.

Therefore, I am requesting that you cease all communication to my phone number regarding this person's debt. If you persist in believing that [name of person] is somehow connected with my address and/or phone number, please provide proof of your claim.

You should direct all future correspondence in writing as outlined in the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) and to cease all communication with me by telephone.

Lastly, I would like to receive confirmation in writing that you have received this letter and will no longer be contacting me about this other person's debt, or I will be forced to seek further legal action.

I look forward to your acknowledgement that you have received this notice by [date that is two weeks from date of letter].


Sincerely,

_______________
(Signature)

Your Name

http://www.privacyrights.org/Letters/debt6.htm

The State Laws protect their right to call the last known number. First call back the number get the address. Write a letter asking them to stop calling. If you are in New Jersey State Law says that this must happen via written communication not just tell that person to take it off when you get them on the phone. Until you write them there is really nothing they can do. Make sure to note your full phone number at least twice in the letter.

Okay this is just as effective as my last piece of advise they get letters like this by the 1,000s the threat of legal action doesn't scare them infact its not a shock save a tree write a simple letter give them at least 2 weeks. The biggest mistake people make are not leaving the important information i.e. the number/numbers you want them to stop calling.

My Mom got a letter from these jokers. They said she owed Pascack valley hospital almost 200 bucks. The big joke was the alleged debt was from 1987!!!! My Mom doesn't think she had any outstanding debt with them. Even if she did the statute of limitations has long run out.