Medical Collection - Paid off to original creditor

[Anonymous]

Today I had a medical Collection hit my credit report. It says it opened April 23. Original balance $706, reported current balance is $566. This is a legitimate bill, however I have the bill from April 5th saying payment was due May 5th for $100. I paid $150 on April 17th. I have since also made several payments to the original creditor- a hospital. I just got a itemized list of payments from the hospital. They have received them and my current balance is $133. I never knew about this bill going to collections. I have a few questions. 

1) is this legal?

2) is the "medical debt protection act" a legitimate law in the USA? If so I think it violates section 14(c) 

3) I read that medical debts paid in full are deleted. Period. Pay to delete or not. But I'm unsure of this is only if insurance pays it or if I pay it as well. My next payment was going to pay it off. Should it be deleted then? 

[Remedios]

Medical bill becomes past due usually 2-3 weeks after first statement is received. 

You have 180 days from the time account became delinquent to when it can be inserted on your CR.

This is not a law, but an agreement between three major CRAs to allow enough time in case there are billing issues, reprocessed claims etc. 

In your case, if you've received first statement in April, it should not be on your credit report yet. 

If that April statement wasnt the first one, but instead that's the statement after which you decided to start paying, it's possible you've passed 180 days. 

It is not true that medical collections are deleted once they are paid. While it might be easier in some instances to get them removed, the success will depend on whether that particular collection agency does pay for delete or not.

One more thing, when you have a medical bill, it's unwise to make smaller payments without contacting hispital/provider and entering into an official payment plan. 

While I understand you're making an effort, they may not want to wait a year to get $150.00.

Some non-profit hospitals are more tolerant, but privately owned hospitals and/or private practice may not be.

They have to agree to terms, such as duration of payment plan and the amount of payment. 

[RobertEG]

The CRAs entered into a settlement agreement for pending civil action brought by the offices of the AG of several states.  The CRAs agreed not to include medical debt in credit reports until the debt had reached 180 days, and to delete from their reports any collections if the debt was ultimately paid by medical insurance.

The deletion of medical collections does not apply to those paid by the consumer.