I just recently had a baby and with that a ton of medical bills left over from what my insurance did not cover. There are 4 separate bills for the same hospital. They told me they could not combine them because they are all different departments.
I thought I had been paying on all of them, but apparently I had not because I recently got a letter in the mail from an attorney's office asking to pay the amount in full or contact them to discuss. I contacted them to try to set up a payment arrangement but the woman I spoke with was very rude. I am currently on an unpaid maternity leave. I tried to explain to her that I do not have money coming in so I would send what I could for the time being and once I get back to work I should be able to start sending more of a substantial amount. When asked what I could pay now, I told her I could send $25 for this month and I would be back to work next month. She basically laughed at me and said absolutely not. She was not helpful at all and basically told me I could send it whatever amount of money I want, they are still going to sue me. I tried calling back to speak with someone else but was on hold until they closed. I am going to try to call again on Monday. I am just curious as to what my options are. I have every intent on paying the bill, but I can only afford what I can afford. I don't see what difference it makes if they follow through and sue me, I still won't be able to give them more then what I offered her right now. I would much rather not have to go to court over this, and have legal fees added on to what I owe. But the woman I spoke with made me feel like I didn't have a choice because I can not pay the balance in full. My mom thinks I should file for bank bankruptcy, I am getting over my head with all the bills I have but I am not to keen on the idea. I worked really hard to bring my credit up over the last year and I would hate to undue all the hard work I've done over a stupid medical bill. Everyone keeps telling me that if am sending them money it can't go to collections.. or they can't take me to court, or if they do take me to court they won't win because I was attempting to pay. Legally I just need to know what my rights are, and how I should handle this attorney's office that clearly wants to bully me into paying the bill in full.
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I live in Michigan, I apologize for leaving that bit of information out.

