Who owns my debt the hospital or collections?

I had some large hospital bills that I was making payments to. Unfortunately it was not enough for the hospital so I think they are sending me to collections. I just received a letter from a collection agency stating that if I didn't pay the debt in full in 30 days they would be assigned my debt and to remit payment to them. Does that mean they already own my debt or does the hospital still own it? I was wondering if it is to late to work it out with the hospital to pay it off and not with the collection agent?|||Hospitals normally will only offer payment terms that will pay off the bill within 3 to 6 months. They will turn the debt to a collections agency after that time even if you are making small payments. Hospitals and other medical facilities do not have the personnel to deal with processing longer term payment plans.





The collection agency sometimes buys the debt and sometimes the debt is just assigned to them. In most cases, it makes no difference. You will have to deal with the collection agency either way. You won't be able to work out a payment plan with the hospital. The collection agency also won't accept small payments over a long term. They will want payment within 6 months.





You might be able to negotiate a settlement for less with the collection agency. Depending on how old the debt is, you might be able to setttle for 25% to 50%. Lump sum gets the best deals. Get any settlement/payment plan in writing and do not give the collector direct access to your bank account.|||Collection agencies either buy debts or take them on consignment. If on consignment, the hospital still owns the debt and the collector will get a percentage of anything they can get. The letter you received doesn't make any sense. They aren't assigned the debt yet, but you are supposed to pay them? This sounds like an attempt to get around the laws giving you 30 days to dispute the debt before it is considered valid by default. (you can still dispute after this 30 days though)





Call the hospital and find out what you need to do. They will tell you if you should still pay them. It sounds like you can. See what type of arrangements they will take to keep the debt in exchange for you paying in full. Make a reasonable offer. Don't offer $5 per week on a 10k debt and expect them to accept it. They don't have to accept anything less than payment in full at this point so ask nicely.|||The hospital still ownes the debt - a collection agency can use illegal dirty





tricks that the hospital can't but they cannot sue you - ONLY the hospital can or the





the one that you originally owe. Collection agencies will even tell you they are





lawyers but really they are no more than greedy crooks out to make an easy





dollar.|||nowadays, most hospitals either want the full amount, or they turn it over to collections, because they don't have the manpower to handle collections themselves. You can still contact the hospital, but they are pretty hard core about the payments.|||It means they WILL own the debt if you don't pay the hospital within 30 days. You should be able to confirm this with the hospital's billing function.|||did you see the part where it said IF you dont pay in full 30 days?