Can hospitals turn you over to a collection agency if you are making monthly payments?

Answer 1

depends if you agreed to make monthly payments or not. the person above (no1home2day) is right to an extent. though they wilfully accept your intent to pay, they might also have some clause in their documentation that negates that and explicitly states that partial payments are not allowed unless consented to in writing.

but if they set you up on a payment plan, and you're on it, and you're making regular payments, and they STILL reported you to the credit bureaus, then they are probably in violation of the fair credit reporting act. get a lawyer and see if you have a case and sue their pants off ;p

Answer 2

Basically, if you have made three consecutive payments of the same amount, the hospital has agreed to accept this payment agreement. They can still turn you over to a collection agency, however, you can contact the agency, and the big three credit report centers and notify them in writing that you are making payments on a monthly basis in a specific amount.

As far as your credit report goes - even though these types of entries may lower your credit score, lenders will accept a letter of explanation telling them the circumstances of the report - nine times out of ten, they will not include medical late payments as a deterrent to granting credit.

Answer 3

When you were seen at the hospital, you signed a paper that stated payment in full is due at the time of service. Any hospital can turn over the bill to collection agency no matter what. In regards to your credit, though. As of October of 1998, Bill Clinton signed into effect a bill that stated a medical bill can not be held against anyone for loans like mortgage of car loans since there is not enough insurance to go around.

Answer 4

YES. If you have a big bill, and are making only small payments that you did not arrange with them, they can, and they will. The old wisdom of 'if you only pay them $20 a month, thay cannot go after you" is no longer true. Health care is all for profit nowadays, Hippocrates be damned. My husband had an (uninsured) heart attack a few years back, and we were getting collection agency letters less than 60 days later.

You HAVE to make arrangements with the hospital, and they will want lots more than $20 a month. I would up garnished over our medical bills, we had a $30,000 bill, and they would not accept less than $1,000 a month. When I told them we could not afford that, they suggested we sell our house, and they put us in collections when we didn't. My Dad finally came to the rescue & ponied up for me, but not everyones Dad can do that.

Good Luck, I hope it works out for you.

Answer 5

No, if you are paying monthly. It takes about a few months to turn over to the collection agency if you happen to miss out.

Answer 6

Did you come to a mutually agreed upon payment schedule? If not, they can probably take you to a collection agency.
Why don't you speak with the supervisor of the hospital billing department and ask what their policy is?

Answer 7

Quick scenario. I was in the hospital for a brain tumor,Then I was sent to another hospital to have it removed. Two weeks later hubby has a stroke. Goes to hospital then to a rehab center. We are both out on long term disability. Been paying this hospital regularly $100.00 a month and they say I earned to much for payment consideration. Nine months later they want to put me into collections. This is not the only we hospitaI need to pay off . We didn t ask for this to happen to us.

Answer 8

As long as 30 or more days has passed by. They Can. They must have sent you a demand letter. Usually after demand letter, they may turn over to collections. I have seen from 30 days to 180 days before turning to collections.

Answer 9

Yes, if you owe the money, they can send it to collections.. A lot of creditors sell the debt to someone else, typically a collection agency. That gives them a certain percentage of money right away and give the person buying the debt the right to collect.

Answer 10

Depends on the hospital. Most of them as long as you are making an attempt to pay a little each month will not turn you in.