• FreeAdvice has a new Terms of Service and Privacy Policy, effective May 25, 2018.
    By continuing to use this site, you are consenting to our Terms of Service and use of cookies.

Medical bills from collection to court

Accident - Bankruptcy - Criminal Law / DUI - Business - Consumer - Employment - Family - Immigration - Real Estate - Tax - Traffic - Wills   Please click a topic or scroll down for more.

trintrin

Junior Member
What is the name of your state? Missouri. my husband was in the hospital (not-for-profit) for two separate surgeries pertaining to his testicular cancer. the first was outpatient. the second a major surgery with a six night stay. i paid one or two payments on the first stay and received a lot of statements. this was threatened to go into collections at the end of july of last year. however, i never received any written letter that stated the bill was sent to collections. in december of this past year, my husband and i took out a personal loan to pay off all our medical bills. i phoned the hospital at the beginning of december to attempt to pay off our bills. the bill from the second surgery (500) was paid without difficulty. i was told the first bill was not in the system. i was told this meant that the bill was being reworked through insurance. i asked if i could have the number to the company they work their collections through to make sure and phoned the collection agency. there was no record of this bill there. so i phoned the hospital billing office back and basically begged for some proof that this was going through insurance and it would not cause problems later. the billing office worker assured me that since it wasn't in the system that she was positive that it was going through insurance and that i need take no further action until i received a new statement. so imagine my surprise yesterday feb. 26, when my husband was served a court summons stating our "refusal" to pay this debt. also included in the "refused" debt : the amount from the second surgery stay that was previously payed for. anyway, i called the billing office. there is record of me paying the second bill and the person i spoke to was on that record. so i phoned the legal department of said hospital only to find out that because this was apparently sent to collections and because the hospital had phoned me previously regarding the said debt that i am now liable for the court fees from the hospital. i received no statements from either the hospital, a lawyer, or a collection agency any time following my phone conversation. i also received no messages on my answering machine nor personally spoke with anyone about this since. my question is: this petition states very clearly that we "refused" to pay said debts, it also was signed by the business office asst. manager on february 2, (and like i said - also includes a debt previously payed in december of last year) is there any point in me going to court over this to pay only my bills and not the other's legal fee, or am i better off to suck it up and pay what i feel is an untrue and unjust charge that resulted from being misled by a worker who repeatedly assured me that i could not pay my bill that day and that i need only wait on a new statement.
 



Find the Right Lawyer for Your Legal Issue!

Fast, Free, and Confidential
data-ad-format="auto">
Top