Can a hospital force you to pay only the amount they want or can we pay what we can afford per month. $10 each

Question

My husband and i have both been in poor health last year and this year. Hospitals want money now.?
If we paid all our medical bills per month at $100, which is what they want us to do because we can't pay all in full it would add up to over $900 per month. That doesn't include our living expenses and other regular bills. We want to send them what we can which is $10 a month on each one until some of them are paid and then we can slowly increase what we are paying. We live in the state of georgia. The main hospital won't work with us and said they will only accept $100 per month. The magistrate said the hospitals didn't have to accept what we paid unless it was what they wanted and even if we were paying 10-$20. per month they could still turn it over for collection or garnish my husbands wages. we want to pay, but my husband hours at work have been cut to 32 and they've already laid some of them off. I am on total disability and only get one check per month for $563. Can anyone help?

Answer 1

I also live in Georgia. I had an ultrasound last year and my insurance would not cover all of it. I arranged to pay $50 a month, but could not even do that. I just paid them every month what I could. Sometimes it was only $10. They still called me sometimes nagging me to pay more, but I didn't. I paid what I could until it was paid off. Also, they can't garnish your wages without a court order, which means they have to sue you. If they take you to court, then show the judge all the checks that you tried to pay them, but that they wouldn't accept. I am pretty sure that the judge will not be very sympathetic to the hospital given that you at least tried to make payments. Also, keep ALL of your canceled checks in the event you have to go to court. Hospitals mess up all the time in their billing. Good luck to you!

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Answer 2

I am a little confused because you said the magistrate said something. . .??? Have you been to court on this case? If the hospital has not sued you set, they cannot garnish your wages. They can only to that after they get a judgment, and they cannot get a judgment until a lawsuit is filed.

Of course, they can turn it over to a collection agency. That really does not matter because the collection agency will just send you bills and call you, but if you have not money to pay then you have no money to pay.

If these medical bills are high, I would consider talking to a bankruptcy attorney.

Oh by the way, the hospital cannot garnish your husband's wages for you medical bills unless at some point he signed an agreement to pay for them. Disability benefits cannot be garnished, so you do not have to worry about the hospital getting part of that check.

Answer 3

I can't speak for other people or their situations so don't give me a thumbs down for what I'm about to say. It's only my personal experience but hopefully it will help you....

I owe a ton of hospital bills and several of them have been turned over to collections. They have all asked for the full amount or for monthly payments that I can't possibly make. I send them $10 a month on each one. They still call me almost every day but the ones that I started paying on before they went into collections have not been sent to collections. They just send the statement every month stating that the debt is past due, requesting more money, but they take the $10 off the amount.

I don't think they will send you to a collection agency if you are paying them. They will still hastle you but I really don't think they will turn it in. Even if they do, it will be a while before it ends up in court. You would have to deal with the collection agency for a while before it would get to that point. I've had debts in collections since 2000 and they haven't went to court. I'm guessing it's because they know a judge would see I'm doing all I can.

Basically, my advice is to pay them the $10 and don't let the calls get you any more stressed than you already are. Do your best, that's all you can do.

Answer 4

They can turn it over to a collections agency if they are not satistifed with the payments you are making. They have to pay a percentage, so they do not like to do this.

$10 to a hospital is not much. If you owe $900 like you say, that will take 90 months to pay off. Eight years is a lot of time to wait.

Unfortunately for you, hospitals are a business and are run to make a profit.

If you have already talked to the finance department, then try your Department of Human Services. You may qualify for assitance, or they may call the hospital and work something out. Your next step may be a personal loan, you will have to pay interest, but you should be able to get the monthly payment managable.

Answer 5

They can send you to collections for not paying or file a lawsuit against you which would be much more costly. If the hospital won't reason with you, pay them what they want and try to minimize the other bills you have. (I assume you don't have health insurance? They should be covering it if you do, or at least covering part of it.) If that doesn't work, you may have to take out a loan of some sort, use it to pay off all of the bills, and pay back the loan officer - of course, that requires interest charges to be paid back as well and may not be your best option. However, yes, they can refuse to lower your payment amount based on their policies.

Answer 6

The hospital can go to court have have your husband's wages garnished, I don't know the rules for Georgia but the percentage can be anywhere from 10% to 25% of wages depending on the state, however, they can't take over that amount from his check. When wages are garnished, addtional fees are added to the amount owed, such as court fees and interest, which means you will owe more than just the $900.00. Plus it will be on your credit report.

Answer 7

Have you spoken to the indigent care office at the hospital or social work? They may be able to help.

The bottom line is that they do not have to accept a small payment. They rendered service, you accepted the services, therefore they are entitled to be repaid. How would you feel if your husbands boss said "I know we owe you $500, but we're going to pay you $10 a month". I seriously doubt you would think that is okay.

Answer 8

i dont know about georga but i am in kinda the same thing and the hospitals was not being very nice and i told the look i can afford 20 a month it is take it or leave it. i do know they can not hold medical bill aginst you on your credit report

Answer 9

A hospital can't refuse a payment.