I had made a arrangements in paying my hospital bill because I don't make that much money and at the time I didn't have insurance. The hospital agreed and I've been sending in my payment every month. I went to check my mail today and it looks like they gave my info to a collection agency in Washington state and they wrote me saying they will give me amnesty and reduce the debt. To begin with I don't have that kind of money that is why I'm making payments to them. But the hospital doesn't want to except my payment now they want me to send it this collection agency. If I keep sending my payment that I was sending the hospital can they still garnish me? Thank you for any help.

I don't understand the problem, many hospitals do not have the staff to send out monthly statements and to collect and do billing on all for the people that owe them money, so if you can not pay the hospital in full, or the amount they want, they allow a collect agency to do the billing and collect the money for them. And it appears they even wrote off part of the total debt ( something you should always ask for before you even start making payments)

And who is saying anything about a garnish? It just sounds like they want you to send the collection agency the monthly payment instead of the hospital directly.

Unless they sold the account to the collection agency you could send the hospital the money BUT, if they sent your files to the collection agency and expect them to collect the money for them, it may confuse your account, since the collection agency will be showing you not paying and you will have to provide proof of your payment to the hosptial tothem, so you are not counted late.

1. contact the hosptial see if they sold the account or are just using them for collections.

2. ask the hosptial if you can continue to send them money.

3. and explain to all of us where the garnish came in, you did not say who said they were going to garnish anything, to garnish they have to sue you in court, get a judgemetn and so on.

I was in a very similar situation about five years ago. Owed a lot of money to a hospital. Had been paying them what I could afford. They threatened me with turning my account over to a collection agency. I went in to the hospital office bringing a witness with me and negotiated with them that I would pay a certain amount every month that was mutually agreeable. They agreed. But, nothing was in writing, though. I learned a lesson there. Always get it in writing.

Anyway, the hospital did end up turning me over to a collection agency. Even though I had been paying the amount per month that had been verbally agreed upon. I think that someone higher up other than the person with whom I had made the agreement must have decided to turn over my account.

I am still paying what I can on the bill every month. The collection thing hasn't been a bad experience at all. If I were to not pay at least something every month, I'm sure that there would be some sort of court action to follow.

My point is, that in my experience, being turned over to a collection agency by a hospital doesn't mean that your wages are going to be garnished or that any other action by the collection agency will be taken by them as long as you pay what you can every month.

Thank you for the helpful information I was just worried about my bill going to collection and it they would still let me pay the same amount that I was paying to the hospital .

I know our local hospital just has a policy, if you can't pay their debt in 3 months, they have a collection company that does their billing and collection for them.

The ER doctors are not even that nice, they turn it over if not paid in full in 30 days

God bless Canada,we don't have to go threw this BS,every Canadian is covered for FREE :).Good luck

I have 2 hospital bills since 2004. One i pay to the hospital and the other to a collection agency. There is no difference. I lowered the amount i send the collection agency to 10.00 after they called a couple of years ago and were not so nice... they are glad to get what they can. I believe after 7 years the debt is cleared anyway... someone please correct me if i'm wrong. Also, i have an outstanding credit report.

Just so people know...

This is a very old thread that is now archived and not generally visible unless someone happens to visit this forum topic area.

Thanks!