Bill went to collections

[Rogue46]

Question for everyone, I received a letter from a local attorneys office this morning stating I owed $55 to a local hospital that was unpaid. I immediately followed the link to pay it and it's taken care of. My question is will this affect my credit?

[GZG]

---

@Rogue46 wrote:

Question for everyone, I received a letter from a local attorneys office this morning stating I owed $55 to a local hospital that was unpaid. I immediately followed the link to pay it and it's taken care of. My question is will this affect my credit?

---

paid medical debt is supposed to be removed from credit reports now, so if it ever does show up, you should be able to have it removed

how long ago was the medical bill from? 

[Rogue46]

@GZG 

The letter states the original bill was 2/7/2024 for the amount of $520 and as of today $464 was paid leaving a balance of $55.60.

My guess is i inadvertently paid  $464 when I recieved the bill instead of the full amount for some reason. This is the first I've heard of this so I'm a little panicked 

[GZG]

---

@Rogue46 wrote:

@GZG 

The letter states the original bill was 2/7/2024 for the amount of $520 and as of today $464 was paid leaving a balance of $55.60.

My guess is i inadvertently paid  $464 when I recieved the bill instead of the full amount for some reason. This is the first I've heard of this so I'm a little panicked 

---

yeah, I would be very surprised if this got reported to your credit with the recent medical collection changes, but if it does, just keep your receipt/evidence from paying and a simple dispute should get it removed 

I highly doubt it will report, you should be all good 

[Rogue46]

Thanks! I was a little freaked out since I've been extremely careful after spending 10 years rebuilding from a BK and it finally fell off my reports recently..  My only thought was Here we go again...

[Tiggr]

Funny enough, if the original bill was less than 500, say 499, the collection would never have showed up on your report.

[IsambardPrince]

---

@Rogue46 wrote:

@GZG 

The letter states the original bill was 2/7/2024 for the amount of $520 and as of today $464 was paid leaving a balance of $55.60.

My guess is i inadvertently paid  $464 when I recieved the bill instead of the full amount for some reason. This is the first I've heard of this so I'm a little panicked 

---

Is this possibly a scam? I'd be on high alert for anything that smells. $55 is probably not an amount they're willing to sue over and it won't end up on your credit.

Of course, there's the other possibility, assuming it is real. They're sitting on other bills and will now start demanding more money now that you've paid one of them.

There was a "settlement scam" going around for people accused of file sharing. You'd get a letter in your inbox and they'd say "Oh you took some MP3s, and we'll call it good for $20 each or else we'll sue you!" and so the mark would pay it off and go "That wasn't so bad!" and then 10 more would land in the inbox the next day. And all the while, they didn't know who the recipient even was (because ISPs were forwarding them) unless they sued or someone paid up. So now you'd have a bigger problem.

If this has spread to medical bills, then perhaps they don't send the $10,000 ER bill right away. First they demand the $55 from something else, and then the $400 from this place, and $1,000 in labs, $7,000 for an ambulance ride 10 miles, then the $10,000 from the ER. It's always easier to start with an amount the victim will see as manageable.

[IsambardPrince]

---

@Tiggr wrote:

Funny enough, if the original bill was less than 500, say 499, the collection would never have showed up on your report.

---

$500 being the threshold is an easy concession that makes no real difference overall.

When was the last time you had a medical bill under $500? I had walking pneumonia a couple years ago and the doctor at the urgent care didn't even run any labs and handed me a prescription for azithromycin (iirc) and the EOB said the bill started at $1200 before contractual write-offs.

So uninsured patients who were the most likely to have a credit file full of this garbage are not going to avoid anything by this policy change.

[Realist]

I won't comment on the recent changes to medical bills being reported, because I just don't know enough about, but I will share some information shared from family who works inside of the medical system, as medical coders and billers.

There are systems in place that are designed to eliminate and remove debt from individuals that fit within a certain criteria.  This criteria, will not be announced to you nor ever promoted, but they are available to you if you ever discover them for yourself.  One one in-law works as a medical biller.  My P2, knows of a friend that held a 27K bill, in which she fit within this criteria, only it was never announced to her.  Because that's not what they do.  My in-law made it happen, and initiated the steps to wipe out the 27K debt entirely.  They system won't ever tell you about the options available to anyone otherwise.

They did make this final statement.   You can take it for what it's worth, I can't verify it one way or another.

Never go into debt for any medical condition.  Never spend all your money or lifes accumulation on medical debt.  So long as you make a simple one dollar payment per month, we aren't sending you to collections, or putting up much of a fight.  Maybe you get some harsh mail, but that's about it.  Strategically speaking, if end of life is approaching, then why would you ever remove your entire lifes worth, to pay off a medical bill?  While alive, reallocate resources out of your name instead.   Let the debt die with you.  It becomes a write down or write off to us.

Everything is a financial game of deception that exists on a financial ledger.  It's not real.

[IsambardPrince]

---

@Realist wrote:

I won't comment on the recent changes to medical bills being reported, because I just don't know enough about, but I will share some information shared from family who works inside of the medical system, as medical coders and billers.

There are systems in place that are designed to eliminate and remove debt from individuals that fit within a certain criteria.  This criteria, will not be announced to you nor ever promoted, but they are available to you if you ever discover them for yourself.  One one in-law works as a medical biller.  My P2, knows of a friend that held a 27K bill, in which she fit within this criteria, only it was never announced to her.  Because that's not what they do.  My in-law made it happen, and initiated the steps to wipe out the 27K debt entirely.  They system won't ever tell you about the options available to anyone otherwise.

They did make this final statement.   You can take it for what it's worth, I can't verify it one way or another.

Never go into debt for any medical condition.  Never spend all your money or lifes accumulation on medical debt.  So long as you make a simple one dollar payment per month, we aren't sending you to collections, or putting up much of a fight.  Maybe you get some harsh mail, but that's about it.  Strategically speaking, if end of life is approaching, then why would you ever remove your entire lifes worth, to pay off a medical bill?  While alive, reallocate resources out of your name instead.   Let the debt die with you.  It becomes a write down or write off to us.

Everything is a financial game of deception that exists on a financial ledger.  It's not real.

---

The biggest mistake most people make is taking a home loan or credit card debt to pay medical bills. It's better to let the medical bills go to collections than move the problem to a place where it will be a MUCH bigger problem. More damage to your credit if it's listed on a credit card that goes bad, and they'll about double the bill in only 6 months and eventually sue you. Credit card banks tend not to mess around, and they're a very bad place to put medical bills.

But before you let medical debt you can't pay just charge off, you should approach the hospital and have them screen you for financial assistance. In Illinois, the law requires them to screen you before collections automatically. Our legislature decided that it wasn't right to give hospitals tax breaks while they were leaving charity care budgets unused and then suing people who couldn't pay them.

There's also a social reason to never move medical bills to a consumer debt. Along with risking your home or doubling on a credit card in six months, if they're listed as medical debt and the hospitals have trouble getting anyone to pay and the problem gets bigger and is viewed as immoral, there's more pressure on government and the system, including from hospital lobbyists, to "work something out". As consumer debt, it's easier to "blame consumers".