[butterfly1956]

I was in an accident in 2008 and was seen in the ER of Baptist Hospital. I gave all of my insurance info up front. I have original Medicare and Tricare for Life. I was told that by law medicare and tricare would have to be filed from each different billing office, like the hospital charges, x-ray charges and medical equipment charges. The hospital and x-ray bills were paid in full by the 2 insurances. The medical equipment charges were turned in to a collection agency. I never received a bill from the medical equipment company or the collection agency. But, I did receive a phone call from the collection agency in 2009 and was given a phone number and website address where I could go and give them my insurance info and they would file for me. So, I emailed the through the website using an account number that they gave me and gave them all of my insurance info again. This is 5 months after my accident, they have a full year from the time of my accident to file. A year after I gave them my insurance info they call me again wanting me to pay the bill in full. I told them I had already given them insurance info to cover the entire bill. They said that medicare had denied them. When I contacted medicare, they claimed that neither the medical equipment company or the collection agency filed my insurance claim. And that it is against the law for them not to file and then charge me for the full amount. I did some research and found that this is a scam going on for them to collect more money for their services, by scaring the elderly and disabled into paying the charges in full rather than them having to accept medicare and tricare's allowable charges. When I explained all of this to the collection agency, they turned around and turned me in to all three creidt bureaus and lowering my credit score. How can I fix this and get it off my credit report and keep the company from doing it again for the same charges or sending me to another collection agency?