Hello r/Personalfinance! Long time lurker here. I have already halved my $12,000 debt this year and plan to pay off the rest by August, thanks in part to some excellent advice from this sub-reddit!
So I am looking forward to the end of my journey, at my final debt to pay off which will be a $1200 hospital bill for an emergency room visit back in May 2017. Strange thing is I haven't heard blip from them in over a year.
My main question for you guys: Should I call them?
Here's the timeline: I went to the ER in May 2017. Got my bill ($1200 after insurance coverage) shortly after. Was in financial hardship and couldn't make my first measly $25 payment until October 2017. Made another measly $25 payment in November 2017.
In December 2017 the hospital changed some policy on their online system to where I could no longer make debit card payments online and instead had to call in payments. Well, aint nobody got time for dat, I decided. And I haven't made a payment since.
Weird thing is I haven't heard a peep from them after I stopped making payments. Nothing in the mail. No phone calls. I even got my free yearly credit report from Experian (and I check it monthly) and there is no reported debt other than the 2 credit cards I am still whittling away at. Nothing reported as going into collections.
Is there such a thing as random medical debt forgiveness that they may have decided to take mercy on me? Could my insurance have decided to foot the remaining balance of the bill? Have they decided to just sit on it for a while and bug me about it / send it to collections at a later time?
Circles back around to my main question: Should I call them?
I will be able to get $1200 together to pay it off in July. Should I wait to contact them until I am ready to pay it? When I do call them, should I have $600 lumped together already that I could offer them to pay it off that day?
Thank you so much for your advice, you guys are the best!
Submitted April 19, 2019 at 12:48AM by Riceko http://bit.ly/2DngRHD
