My question involves collection proceedings in the State of: Florida
Good Morning! I wanted to have a tubal reversal surgery. I found a specialist in Florida that would do it. The DR office required that payment be made 2 weeks prior to your surgery or it would be canceled. They had 4 different finance companies that they worked with. I applied with one company and was approved for the amount of the surgery. Once I was approved I was able to schedule the surgery, so it was scheduled for 9/26/08.
I signed the contract with the finance company and the loan was finalized on 9/10/08 and they said that payment and everything would be taken care of directly with the DR office and all I needed to worry about now was making sure my monthly payment was paid on the first of each month starting 10/01/08.
I flew to Florida (I am from CO) on 9/23/08 and had my surgery on the scheduled date. The DR office called me on 9/30/08 and told me that my financing had not gone through and that the finance company had not paid them. So I sent a certified letter to the finance company stating that I was not paying the monthly payment until I received proof that my DR office had been paid (DR office said I should do that to cover me butt).
So now I have the DR office calling me and telling me that I have to apply for financing through one of their other companies. I offered to make monthly payments to them directly, but I was told that they can not take payment like that and I need to get financed. They also told me that they have cancelled at least 2 other surgeries for people that have gone through financing with the company I used, because the company had not paid prior to their surgery. DR office also told me that they have spoken with the finance company and were told that the finance company is currently going through a merger and they are not approving or funding any loans for at least 30-45 days (they told me that on 9/30/08). Now they say that one person at the finance company told them that a large company that backs up their loans has pulled away from them.
I received a letter yesterday from my finance company stating that my loan had been canceled and is no longer an active file with them. They also stated that they have notified the credit reporting bureaus to completely delete their entry as it is not an active loan.
I know that I am responsible for paying the bill, but I don't feel I should have to jump through hoops to get financing for a surgery that has already been done and that I had already been financed for. I don't understand why the DR office refuses to take payments directly from me when they messed up and went ahead and did the surgery without having payment first. I guess I need to know if I can legally tell them that they either need to take payment directly from me or they are not going to get paid at all.
I apologize that this is so long. I hope someone out there can give me advice.

