Hospital Bill

How many payments does one need to make to a creditor (in my case, a hospital) before it is legally considered a payment plan they have been accepting? I heard this was the case at one time with basically any creditor. If they accept your payments "X" number of times, they have entered into a payment plan agreement.

Most hospitals will set you up on a payment plan if you go there and talk to the person in charge of payments.....

I think you are asking about the legal precedent of accepting payments that are different from the original proposed.
I know that many hospitals have you sign paperwork pre procedure. Those I have read contain language about that issue that allow them to retain payments, other than proposed, without giving up their right to enforce the original debt.
As usual, an attorney might help.

To know for sure, you may need to just call and talk to a billing administrator at the hospital.

Piedmont Athens Regional contracted their billing out to a private billing company. They don't do the whole just pay what you can gig. They take your total bill and divide it up into 12 months and that's your payment. Failure to uphold the payments and they WILL take legal action, including garnishing wages, etc.

If you talk to an administrator, they MAY be willing to negotiate the total...most of the time you have to show your income isn't over a specific amount. If your income exceeds that, they may not negotiate much or anything. Also, if you have insurance that already paid their portion, it's harder to negotiate too.

We went around and around with them when my oldest daughter was hospitalized with MRSA. She was covered with insurance and we still owed a LOT. They were not willing to work with us at 1st, but we kept at it.

Helpfinancial.com is another avenue for paying med bills.

Have whatever bill they want from you audited, then negotiate with the hospital. There is no automatic payment plan. But don't assume and don't go by what "someone told you", get the facts.

Paying anything other than the “agreed” amount that’s on paperwork doesn’t initiate a new payment plan.

“Making a certain number of payments with a creditor”........consider this; if you paid $50 a month less on your car payment, and the bank accepted those lesser payments, has a new payment plan been initiated based solely on the amount you’ve been paying?

A hospital is going to send you a bill that’s due now, and provide you a number to call to make arrangements. To keep those terms, you must pay the amount agreed on every month.