As People sink underneath medical bills, debt collectors go to nice—and generally unusual—lengths to gather. Olga Khazan writes on The Atlantic:

Corporations can attempt to gather on medical debt nearly perpetually. Though previous debt is simpler to flee in court docket, little prevents debt collectors from making an attempt to gather on it. “Debt by no means dies,” says Craig Antico, a former medical-debt collector and a co-founder of RIP Medical Debt, a corporation that buys and eliminates medical debt. Solely Wisconsin, North Carolina, and Mississippi clear sure money owed as soon as they’re previous the statute of limitations.

Typically, hospitals looking for to get payments paid place accounts in a “waterfall” of assortment makes an attempt, Antico instructed me. At first, hospitals, or the collections businesses they rent, will strategy debtors with  a “tender” assortment: Did you misplace your invoice? Perhaps you qualify for charity care. “However then if individuals aren’t responding, it’s going to get extra irritating,” Antico mentioned. A group company may report the quantity owed to a credit score bureau, or the account is perhaps despatched to an lawyer to implement assortment. (A new proposed federal rule would prohibit debt collectors from calling greater than seven occasions weekly a few debt, however shopper advocates instructed me this might nonetheless end in greater than seven calls in every week, since every physician’s invoice can depend as a separate debt.)

Finally, collectors may decide to sue you, by which case they could have the ability to garnish your wages or put a lien in your property. Antico estimates, based mostly on an ADP report, that about 1.5 % of American workers have a garnishment on their wages for a medical purpose.