Will medical bills leave me alone if I send $5 per month? Minimum monthly payment on medical bills?
What is the minimum monthly payment on medical bills?
This is TC Rollins at the Rollins Law Firm. Lately we’ve had people asking questions about medical debts and some people believe that they can just send in $5 a month and the medical debts would have to leave them alone. Today we’ll let you know whether that’s true or not.
When are medical bills sent to collections?
It varies, every medical provider is different. If you don’t pay your bill, after a few months it’s likely the bill will be sent to a debt collector. Sometimes the debt collector is hired to collect the debt and just receives a percentage of what they collect. In other instances the medical company will sell the debt to the debt collector.
Can be sued for a medical debt?
Yes you can. If you don’t work out some type of payment arrangements, the debt collector or even the medical provider can file a lawsuit against you. You’ll receive a summons, you may have a deadline you have to respond by, you may have a court date uh and then there will be a hearing. And if you lose that lawsuit you can be garnished. They can take up to 25% of your pay or they can garnish your bank account.
Can you just make a minimum payment, to make the medical offices leave you alone?
This is an old wives’ tale we hear all the time. People think that, because they’re sending in $5 a month the medical company can’t do anything about it. Or $20 a month, there’s just some random number but that’s just not the case. There is no way you can make them leave you alone just by sending in a small amount each month. That makes it a little more likely that they’ll leave you alone, but if the debt collector or the provider believes they can get more money out of you it’s likely they will sue you.
What should you do if you’re facing a large medical bill?
Don’t charge it on a credit card because the credit card is gonna carry a higher interest rate than the medical bill. You also don’t want to just ignore it. You want to try to call and make some type of arrangements. So just because you can’t make up a number, doesn’t mean you can’t work out a deal. So they don’t have to accept just $5 a month but they’ll usually work with you. Most companies have a program where they can put you on a payment plan to take care of the debt. If you end up with so much medical debt that you can’t get out of it bankruptcy is another option. And that’s what we do at this law firm. Most medical debts can be eliminated in Chapter 7 bankruptcy or Chapter 13 bankruptcy. So if you’d like to talk about your bankruptcy options please call the Rollins Law Firm to schedule a consultation