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My friend had a doctor bill from 2 years ago around $1000 dollars that he never paid,anyways he said today that the hospital is going to garnish his paycheck 25%. Do all hospitals do this on unpaid bills?
Yes, it needs to be taken to court first and a judgment issued (which usually goes through a collection agency). I had a couple of medical bills so long that they fell off of my credit report.
They havent gone to court yet and I dont even think they are going too,they are just gonna garnish it,but I thought it just screwed up your credit and I didnt really think the hospital would pursue something like this since illegals get it free and so many people dont pay doctor bills.
A hospital or anyone other than the government lol cannot just "garnish" your paycheck without a legal judgment. And the amount they can garnish varies by state and in some cases by type of debt. I am not familiar with New Mexico law, but the only thing I can think of is perhaps whatever paperwork your friend signed with the hospital contained a "confession of judgment" clause. (Those arent legal in all states so not sure it even applies here.) What that would mean is all the hospital would have to do is send the court a copy of the contract with the "confession", send evidence your friend didnt pay--->and the court would grant the judgment. But they still have to go thru the court. Tho your friend may not necessarily have known about it until they received the garnishment notice.
Say you pilfer the IRS tho or dont pay a student loan-they can garnish you no questions asked. But a hospital cannot. Or does your friend work for the hospital-if so, their employer/employee documents may give them the right to retain portions of the pay.
Sort of surprising anyone would trouble with a garnishment over $1000 nowdays tho.
They havent gone to court yet and I dont even think they are going too,they are just gonna garnish it,but I thought it just screwed up your credit and I didnt really think the hospital would pursue something like this since illegals get it free and so many people dont pay doctor bills.
A doctor or hospital deserves to be paid for services rendered just as much as anyone else. And yes, they will pursue getting their money the same way any other business will. He should have worried about his credit being screwed up when he chose to not pay the bill to begin with, not now.
So can your wadges be garnished for hospital bills? I live in Va.
Your wages can be garnished for any unpaid debt, if the person/company/entity who you owe, gets a judgment from the court saying so. It's a legal matter, not a medical matter.
If you owe money, and don't pay it, then a judge CAN order that the money be paid out of your paycheck. That doesn't mean they will order it. But yes, they can. It has to come from a court judgment though.
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