How does it go to collections so fast?!

amother

Tue, Oct 24 2023, 2:28 pm

I have a medical bill that went to collections after just 6 weeks! And I've been on a payment plan, it's just for some reason, $60 of the total was on a separate bill, so that wasn't included on what's being paid on the payment plan. And the bill was for having a baby, so it's not like I'm in the clearest headspace right now. This whole thing is so ridiculous! From the separate bills, to going to collections over 60 dollars, to going so quickly. I got no calls or other notifications that it even was going to collections, I just got the big bill and set up a payment plan for it.

amother

Peru

Tue, Oct 24 2023, 2:33 pm

amother OP wrote:

So this happened to me also. I was on a payment plan and missed one payment and it was sent to collections. When I called the hospital to complain they told me it wasn’t actually a collections agency, it’s just an internal agency that’s part of the hospital that does collections when someone on a payment plan doesn’t pay. It doesn’t get reported to ur credit bureau. Not saying this is your case but it could be. I was dealing with Monmouth medical center at the time. It’s not a big deal. They set up a new payment plan

amother

Amaryllis

Tue, Oct 24 2023, 3:46 pm

Going to collections is not a big deal and won’t affect you at all, unless the collections agency decides to escalate it and put it on your credit. But they have to wait a specific period of time before doing that anyways.

If anything this can be helpful to you as you can probably get them to lower the amount you owe (though if it’s only $60 that went to collections you may not care anyways)

amother

Gold

Tue, Oct 24 2023, 4:50 pm

I think I read that medical bills sent to collections by law cannot impact your credit score. There may be exceptions, so double-check that, but if it just went now and it's a small amount of money, I wouldn't worry about it. Just call them up and take care of it and move on.

amother

Floralwhite

Tue, Oct 24 2023, 9:12 pm

These replies are making me feel better. I also had a medical just recently go to collections after a very short time and I'm anxious about it. My issue is that the provider did not properly document the visit code, but all the billing dept reps refuse to do anything about it.