r/HospitalBills • u/Slugclub50 • 1d ago
Is it to late
My bill went to a collection company, is it to late to call the hospital and try to work out a lower payment
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u/ElleGee5152 23h ago
I would try to work with the collection agency. If this has been billed through your insurance and there aren't any errors (balance due matches what your insurance says is your responsibility to pay), the hospital very likely is not going to pull it back. Most hospitals will only hold debt for so long, even if you're making some kind of regular payment. This is why their payment plan amounts can be ridiculously high.
The good news is that collection agencies are often authorized to offer a discount in exchange for payment in full or can try to get a larger discount negotiated. They are almost always willing to set payment plans with smaller monthly payment amounts than a hospital will.
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u/Slugclub50 23h ago
It’s my daughter’s damn debt. She went to the emergency room for them to give her an excedrien migraine pill and that cost over $4,000. She’s on my insurance
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u/throwawayeverynight 22h ago
How old is your daughter?
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u/Slugclub50 20h ago
24
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u/throwawayeverynight 20h ago
Your not going to be able to negotiate for her as she’s not a minor regardless if it’s your health insurance
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u/Slugclub50 20h ago
I’m going to say I’m her, she can listen and learn how to do it
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u/throwawayeverynight 20h ago
The correct way is to have her call in and give permission for you to handle the bill. The hospital will not pull back a account if you are trying to to make a payment plan, the collection agency can handle that. If the bill was sent to insurance and the balance is coming from the claim being applied to the deductible, it would be fraud to discount this. The reason being why the acc won’t be pulled for a payment from the hospital is because the collection agency will still charge them a fee for working the acct
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u/Better-Tough6874 7h ago
So you/her ignored the bill and now it's in collections-and will ultimately ruin your credit unless you work something out.
Ask if they will settle for less-but you need to address this ASAP.
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u/positivelycat 1d ago
Depends sometime the collection agency will cut you a better deal. Sometimes the hospital sometime no one is going to do anything but pit u on a payment plan.
No one has to pull you back from collection though
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u/No-Produce-6720 19h ago
If it's already been sent to an outside collection agency, the hospital no longer owns the account, and legally, they cannot make any arrangements or accept any payment from you. You would have to deal with the collection agency, instead.
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u/Away-Record7066 6h ago edited 6h ago
YES !! The Hosp sold your acct to the collection Agency...........that said, they will negotiate, and you'll probably pay less than dealing with the Hosp.
As for your credit score........it dropped when it went to collections, but it will bounce back after you pay !!!
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u/Leading-Reference-31 1d ago
When I worked in hospital financial services we were allowed to pull accounts back from collections if they had been there for less than a month. So it's worth a try. Although we did not negotiate for lower amounts, simply set up payment plans.