Legal Question in Credit and Debt Law in Georgia

They (and any other creditors) can sue and get a judgment and garnishee wages and bank accounts. Depending on your overall finances, seeing a lawyer to look at bankruptcy might be a smart move.

I would have to agree with Attorney Ashman. While I am sorry for your circumstances, your options are either work out some kind of payment arrangement now or, if you don't have it, start saving and hope that by the time you are sued that you will have money saved with which to resolve the debt. The other option may be to file bankruptcy if you have other dischargeable debts which in combination with this are enough to justify it. While there is no dollar limit, bankruptcy has its own consequences and should not be lightly entered into. My ballpark rule of thumb is people who have at least $10,000 in dischargeable debt and who can file a bankruptcy under chapter 7 may want to explore that option. For people who make too much income or who have too many assets such that bankruptcy is not feasible, then the other alternative is to try to resolve the debt by making payment arrangements or by saving and then paying.

Have you tried to request the hardship papers now from the hospital?

And forgetting about a hospital bill? The hospitals these days are turning people over to collection within 30 days (or less) of non-payment of a bill. While this is purely anecdotal, I know of a situation where a bill was a few days late (payment was sent) and the debt collectors started to call. So its hard to believe that nothing was done for 7 months.