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How do you handle hospital bills that are sent six months plus later then to collections? Do you pay the hospital or deal with collections? (lemmy.selfhostcat.com)

submitted 6 days ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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Hospital says payment plans don’t work since it’s gone to collections…

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (1 children)

Couple things here:

as of now, medical debt doesn’t hit your personal credit like other debt does, which leads me to…
the debt collectors may try to get you to finance the debt, which absolutely WILL impact your credit if you default. Never finance medical debt, it can only hurt you.

This is of course in addition to the other comment that says you need to ask for proof of ownership from the collectors.

I had a about a $100k medical bill that was covered except for a $5k deductible years ago, which I couldn’t pay. It eventually went away.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 days ago (3 children)

What did you do to make it go away? How do they get it to impact my credit?

Thanks!

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Sorry, just getting around to replying to this. For me, it just went away after 7 years. I made a big purchase during that time and still got the interest rate for top tier credit.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 days ago

thanks for sharing

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 days ago

If one changes medical debt to non-medical debt, it will impact your credit.

Do not put it on a credit card (less you can pay it off immediately).

I do not know if a creditor based payment plan keeps it as medical debt or not.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 days ago* (last edited 8 hours ago)

Depending on the state, any debt with no new activity falls off your Credit History after 7 years(5 in my state). Agreeing to pay, or making a payment, counts as new activity. Don't pay on shit that you cannot afford to pay off in full over whatever time-frame. Don't agree to payment plans that don't reduce the debt witt each payment.

Even if they agree to a lower total amount, it goes on your credit report as being written-off, which often has a worse effect on your score than ignoring the debt.