My friend recently had a procedure done at a local hospital
(Washington state). Less than a month later, she received a bill for
$2400, indicating that they were going to send it to collections. A
few days later, she got a notice from the collection agency for $5000.
This seems like an awful lot of money, especially since her insurance
should be paying for the procedure, and WAY too soon to be sent to
collections, so we took a closer look at the bill.

The procedures that were listed were not the same as the procedures
that my friend had and then we noticed that patient name at the top of
the bill WAS NOT MY FRIEND'S NAME! It was my friend's name and address
on the front of the bill, but the name and patient number listed
elsewhere were not the same as my friend's name and patient number. My
friend does not know the person whose name is on the bill at all.

So, she called up both the hospital and the collection agency and they
told her she was the "guarantor" for this other person and was
obligated to pay the bill since the other person defaulted. So my
friend explained that she didn't know who the other person was and the
hospital is "investigating" it now.

My question is how can she prove that she is NOT the guarantor of this
other person? Knowing how long it takes hospitals and collection
agencies to "investigate" bills, can she ask for some kind of proof
from them that she is required to pay the bills of this person she
doesn't know? Obviously, she would have had to sign something to
become guarantor. It is probably just a mistake in billing, but it
could affect her credit if it doesn't get cleared up in a timely
manner.