Hospital Bills

How to Handle Unpaid Hospital Bills

Can the hospital send you to a collection agency even if you have been making payments? or one late payment?

Can delinquent payments to the Hospital affect your credit if they report you?

Tia

I would think the answer depends on whether you have some arrangement with the hospital to pay in installments.

If you have an payment plan that the hospital accepted, it should not send your case out for collection unless you are in default - not making the payments.

I wouldn't think the hospital would send your case to collection if you were late, even if you made a habit of it. They would have to pay too much to the collection agency, so they would likely accept late payments and tack on fees and interest.

If you don't have a repayment plan that the hospital accepted, then you can run into trouble. For example, if you owe $5,000 and decided on your own to pay the bill down $100 per month, the hospital would probably send your case to collection.

So if you don't have an approved repayment plan, call the hospital's billing department and see if you can work one out. The hospital should be willing, given the vast sums of money it writes off every year.

If you're late paying your bills, any creditor can report that to the credit bureaus and your credit rating will be affected.