How to Make Payments on a Hospital Bill to Avoid a Bad Credit Report

The only bills that affect your credit report are those that get reported to the credit bureaus. Hospitals and other medical providers handle billing in-house and generally do not report bills to credit bureaus. However, if you are delinquent on your payment, the hospital might send the bill to a collection agency. At this point, the collection agency reports it to the credit bureaus and it will lower your credit score. To make matters worse, even if you pay it then, the collection account continues hurting your score for seven years. Avoid this by paying your hospital bill before it goes to collections.

Instructions

1

Confirm your mailing address with the hospital before you leave when you receive the treatment. This will ensure that you receive your bill in a timely fashion and can address payment before the hospital sends it to a collection agency.

2

Pay the full amount of the bill at once if you can afford it. This is the best way to ensure that it is all taken care of on time and will not hurt your credit.

3

Call the billing department at the hospital if you need to work out a payment plan. The phone number should appear on the bill you receive in the mail.

4

Discuss the bill with the customer service representative and determine the amount you will need to pay each month.

5

Ask for the address to send your payments to. You also might be able to set up an automatic monthly payment from your credit card or bank account. This helps ensure that you never miss a payment.

6

Mail the payment of the agreed amount to the hospital's billing department each month. Send the payment at least a week before it is due to ensure that it has time to be applied to your account.

7

Call the hospital before the payment is due if you don't have enough money for that month's payment. Explain the situation and ask if you can lower your payment amount or delay payment this month without penalty. In most cases, as long as you express a genuine desire to make payment promptly and stay in touch, the hospital will continue to hold onto your bill and it won't affect your credit.