Hacker News Reader

But I guess that’s my whole point is once they sell it to collectors it’s equivalent to the bill not existing? My confusion is around wondering if I’ve somehow fallen through the cracks and got lucky or other people have the same experience.

Why do other people pay bills they receive in the mail?

View on HN

That's not always the case. Some hospitals will still keep a record of the unpaid bill on your account even after they pass the debt to a collector, and the collector will report whether you pay to the hospital.

The practice and billing parts of the system are usually mostly separate, so the person checking you in for your appointments may not know or have any way to see that you have unpaid bills and you won't necessarily be denied care for it, but there's no real standard here either.

I doubt the collection agencies would even purchase these at this point.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com