My question involves collection proceedings in the State of: South Carolina/Georgia
I moved to Georgia last year and in December I received a call from a collections agency saying that I owe money from a doctor's visit in South Carolina in Spring 2009. Despite not doing anything spectacular at the visit (I saw a nurse practioner for a cold), I was told that I owed nearly 300 dollars. I told them that there must be a billing error. The calls stopped, so I assumed it had been resolved.
The calls started again, and they told me that insurance had denied my claim because I was not a full-time student at the time. I knew that could not be right(I was definitely a full time student at the time with the correct documentation with my insurance). So, I drove 2 hrs to the doctor's office(billing there would not return my calls) and they told me that they cannot refile the claim because it had been over a year since the date of service. My insurance company says that they will not pay it because it has been too long since the date of service.
It seems wrong that I should be forced to pay nearly 300 dollars for a service covered by my insurance that was denied due to error where the doctor's office never notified me of the problem. Instead, they just turned me over to collections after the deadlines for correcting the problem had passed. I cannot seem to find any information for what my options are now that it has already been turned over to collections. I need to resolve the matter soon, as if an unpaid collection is on my credit report this summer, I will be denied gov't student loans.
What can I do?

