Medical debt nightmare: Why a woman may end up paying over $5,550 for her $294 doctor’s visit

EDITOR’S NOTE: This is part 1 in a series of stories about medical debt and Medical Recovery Services. Additional parts will be posted this week on EastIdahoNews.com.

IDAHO FALLS — She only got a few stitches — nothing glamorous or lifesaving.

And yet, years later, Mary Johnson is still feeling the impact of that doctor’s visit.

Johnson, whose name EastIdahoNews.com has changed at her request, is fighting a local debt collection company over a now-paid $294 bill which has ballooned to $5,583.25. The massive increase is in large part due to attorney fees and legal battles largely beyond her control.

This week EastIdahoNews.com is taking an in-depth look at a Medical Recovery Services, a company that appears to be making a lot of money from attorney fees and debts that have often been satisfied.

Here is Johnson’s story.

The debt

Johnson isn’t sure she actually remembers the doctor’s visit that started the chain of events. She believes it was from a 2011 trip to an emergency room or urgent care where she needed stitches for an injury.

Everything seemed fine and after the dust settled, court documents say she owned $294 to Intermountain Emergency Physicians, a billing agency that handles payments for local doctors.

Johnson claims she never received a bill for the service and forgot about the visit.

The unpaid balance ended up at Medical Recovery Services, an Idaho Falls-based debt collection company. Attorneys Bryan Smith and Bryan Zollinger handle debt collection for Medical Recovery Services. Zollinger also serves in the Idaho House of Representatives.

Between July 2013 and July 2017, Smith and Zollinger aggressively pursued Johnson’s debt. Smith says the collection agency sent 47 written notices for payment and attempted to collect by phone five times. It’s unknown how many letters or calls Johnson actually received and Smith claims the woman was using as many as four aliases.

Eventually, they did track her down and in 2018 filed a lawsuit against Johnson for the unpaid debt.

As is the case in the majority of debtor claims, Johnson didn’t respond to the lawsuit. As a result, a judge issued a default judgment against Johnson for a total of $976.41. That’s the original debt, plus interest and attorney fees.

Smith and Zollinger then received a court order to garnish Johnson’s wages from Melalueca, where she was employed.

That’s when things became complicated.

The lawsuit

A problem arose almost immediately. Even though Medical Recovery Services had a court order, it didn’t have the correct information to pursue the debt.

“Melaleuca received a garnishment document that didn’t match any name of any employee,” Melaleuca attorney Andrew Law tells EastIdahoNews.com. “Melaleuca couldn’t guess, and potentially guess wrongly, as to who the true judgment debtor was.”

The Social Security number on the garnishment was Johnson’s, but the last name didn’t match hers.

Melaleuca proposed that Medical Recovery Services send the Wellness Company a legal notice, called an interrogatory, asking the name of the employee with the Social Security number printed on the garnishment. Melaleuca would then respond with the information, and the garnishment could move forward.

Legal filings show Law called Medical Recovery Services on June 20, 2018, and then followed up with an email.

“I indicated that Melaleuca is willing to work with you and that Melaleuca doesn’t believe it is necessary to take this dispute to the court,” Law wrote.

CLICK HERE TO READ THE EMAIL MELALEUCA SENT TO MEDICAL RECOVERY SERVICES

Smith and Zollinger refused and took Melaleuca to court.

GO TO EASTIDAHONEWS.COM TO READ THE REST OF THE STORY

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