Legal Question in Credit and Debt Law in Virginia
How long can a hospital hold medical bills?
I had a child in 1993. I recently was contacted by the hospital where the child was born and informed that I owed approximately $600.00 for the birth of this child. I told them that I had paid for this. I was told that I had to prove that I did. Can they make me do this? It has been seven years, is there a statute of limitations on this? They have sent it to a collection agency and I was told that the reason I had not heard anything from them before now was because they did not have an address on me, which can't be true because I have been going to this hospital for quite a few years for medical problems. Could you please help me?! I don't have the records after this long and it will take me forever to find them and if I don't find all of the records that I need I will have to pay whatever I can't prove that I already did pay, seven years ago.
2 Answers from Attorneys
Re: How long can a hospital hold medical bills?
The statute of limitations is either 3 or 5 years, assuming both you and the hospital are in VA. Unless there is a basis for tolling the statute of limitations, this claim should be time-barred.
Re: How long can a hospital hold medical bills?
Yes, there's a statute of limitations. It's an affirmative defense, however, and not an absolute bar to filing suit. That means that, no matter how old the debt, they can still file suit against you to collect it, and it's up to you to defend on the basis of a written pleading that says you're relying on the statute of limitations. If you do that, and you're right about the application of the relevant statute, then you win. Lots of people would rather pay up than be sued, however, because of how it looks in your credit history to be sued by a creditor. True, it should also reflect your victory in court, but it probably won't, and the fact that you won not because you don't owe the money but because they waited too long to demand it won't look good.
By the way, I hope that's not the only hospital in town, you may need one some day.
If you don't care about that, then wait and see what they do. Otherwise, pay the bill.
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