I am trying to find out some insight (any would be great) on a medical collection bill. I received a summons to file an appearance for a past due medical bill. Yes it is my bill and I do owe the money. The questions is this: I have had credit problems in the past due to medical bills and have finally started to straighten out my credit and my score is rising. The last thing I need is a judgement for this bill to be put on my credit. When I tried to phone the lawyer they told me "Oh the judgement is already on your credit and you don't even have to appear in court just set up a payment plan with us. Well I know this is not true since I received the summons today and if I don't appear they will just enter a default judgement against me. I even offered to pay the bill in full and they still stated a judgement will still be entered???? Can someone explain how a judgement gets entered if i pay the amount due before the court date? Or can I offer to tell the judge I will pay in full?? Any advice would be great.

How old is this bill??

Did you check with the Court to see if there is already a judgment on file??

You may have TWO different accounts involved.

IS it ( or ANY judgment) on your reports??

Appear and fight the judgment, request proof of the claim and proof of the assignment or sale, if the medical service was more than 4 years ago, state that their claim is time-barred.

AT WORST, you will be able to pay the bill AT THE COURT to prevent a judgment being filed.

If you have time, you can try paying the OC health care provider directly with the HIPAA letter ( insert "a")and a BANK MONEY ORDER, but you would have to follow the instructions EXACTLY.

http://whychat.5u.com/hipltr.html

You could then appear in Court and state that their claim is not valid as you have proof that the bill was paid in full to the OC health care provider.

Okay here goes..No there is no judgement entered yet at the court since I just received the summons to answer today. I have to file an answer before august 20th. The debt is only 3 years old and I had made some payments on the account last year but due to illness I had stopped paying. This is only 1 hospital account and the amount is only $727.00 with court costs.

I don't have enough time to do the hippa thing. I am unsure if I should just pay them before I file my answer to appear so I can state they have already been paid in full? Someone told me if I wait to pay the day of court then the judgement will still be entered and put on my credit because I still owed the money. I am so stressed out and confused.

I am now confused......if you don't have the time , why are you even asking questions here? Seems you have time for the boards......if you would have done a little research, you could have seen that a letter would take all of 5 mins max to write and possibly resolve this entire issue for you.

I believe the most knowledgable ones on this site are more than willing to help anyone BUT one must be willing to help theirselves. I am not "scolding" BUT I think you need to look at this situation and attempt to create a solution.

I came here asking for help as I was determined not to let the OC's win and take my credit back to nothing after I have worked so hard to get it back in the upward position. I received lots of great advice and so far it has worked everytime!

Good Luck!