Legal Question in Credit and Debt Law in Georgia

You walk around the important details. How much was the total initial bill for treatment? Did you, or did you not, pay it as agreed? When you received a bill for $526 did you just ignore it until you got the collection notice weeks later? That was a mistake. The hospital did not give you an "acceptable definition" but you tell us nothing about what they did say and why it was not acceptable.

You do not ask a direct question. Your unstated issue is "do I have to pay?" The answer to that is "maybe" or "it depends." You do not provide the relevant details here. The short answer is that anything is negotiable including medical debt. Since you ignored the "commercial adjustment" you were turned over to collections. Usually, hospitals do that much quicker. Since you have been, you need to dispute this in writing by demanding an explanation of the charges. As noted by Attorney Riddle, you need to look back at the total charges for which you were responsible minus what you paid. Depend an itemized statement. There are services out there who review medical debt but yours is small here so you may not want to incur this but you need to scan the statement for errors or double charges. When all is said and done, you then need to make an offer to settle the debt if you are liable for about 50% of whatever is stated. You can try starting at 40% but hospitals do not go very much lower than 50%. I also would not let your credit be screwed up over a paltry error like this. No it is not fair but there are lots of things in life that are not fair. You may just want to consider asking if the hospital will do what is called a "pay for delete" and remove all negative/derogatory information about this debt in return for your payment of the bill in full. You might also be able to get them to settle and remove the derogatory information if you can make a good case that the hospital was the one who dropped the ball here.

Know also that the hospital is not a bank. They provided you with medical treatment and expected to be paid therefore at the time, not in installments. So the fact that you had an arrangement means nothing unless its in writing. It does not stop you from being turned over to collections. However, you need to make sure that you have been credited for all payments made by you or on your behalf.

And lose the attitude about the hospital not giving you an "acceptable definition." You are not God or even Caesar. The hospital does not owe you anything and, unless there is a law in Georgia requiring hospital bills to be in plain English, they are not required to do so. A commercial adjustment is just that - an adjustment to your bill. Now where the adjustment came from I cannot say - which is why you need to demand an itemized statement. Was there insurance? Did the insurer pay? Many hospitals don't code things properly. If an insurer denied a claim, maybe this was the reason. Can you re-submit it? Or pay and fight it out with your insurer? Most insurers have a one-year limit on the submission of claims.

You have some work to do to get this straightened out.