Expert: Ray A Miller - 12/16/2008

Question
My husband and I recently purchased a house. When our credit report was run, we noticed that there were two medical bills which were several years old. Having a little money left over, we paid these bills hoping to clear up our credit. A few months after moving into our home, we began receiving phone calls from another credit agency concerning more unpaid medical bills (I have never heard of these bills before this time, and there was no mention of them on our report).

I took me several calls to the hospital to verify that my husband did indeed owe this money as it was several years old, and this was before we were together. I then called the collection agency and was told that the amount would be reduced considerably if I were to give them my credit card information over the phone. This all sounded a little hinky to me, and not wanting to give my personal information over the phone to a company I never heard of for a debt that I never heard of, I refused to pay. I should also mention that throughout the several different phone calls to this company, I was given three different amounts that we owed adding to my suspicions.

Now, once again, I am receiving collection notices for these two hospital bills. One for $149 from Dec. of 2002 and one for $175.50.Although, this second bill causes me to question because in the previous collection attempts the amount was for $169 and that bill was from Aug. 2004 and I have not heard of this $175.50 bill before.

We live in Wisconsin. I know it doesn't seem like much, but money is extremely tight and these bills are so old. Also, I kinda feel as if by paying the ones that were on our credit report, we seemed to have opened the "flood gates" so-to-speak for everyone to come out of the wood-work and attempt to collect money on extremely old debts.

So my questions are this:
First, these bills are so old, and my husband is horrible about keeping track of these things. He doesn't even remember going to the hospital for the services they said that they provided. Is there a statute of limitations on this debt?
Second, I heard that the actions that can be taken for medical bills are different from the actions that can be taken for other bills (such as non-payment of a car loan or credit card). Is this true, and what is the worse that can happen for not paying medical bills?

Thank you for your time.

Answer
I tried to research this and came up with 3 to 6 years for the SOL. Your best bet is to ask for verification from the collections agency and call the WI Attorney General's Office (http://www.doj.state.wi.us/) and explain the situation.  As to the worse that can happen if you don't pay; 7 years from the date of charge off of bad credit.  On bills this small, I doubt, but can not guarantee, that anyone would sue over them.  I hope you find this helpful.  WI laws are a bit confusing and I am not an attorney but I try to help when I can.