Somewhat OT- Medical Collections?

Since I figured most of us probably have had a lot of medical bills to pay out of pocket at one time or another, maybe someone here could answer my question...

Last July I had a colonoscopy, and ended up with a collective bill of almost $700 ($250 from the deductible and then I had to pay 20%). It was about $270 to my GI, $125 to the hospital, and another $250 to the anesthesia. This came at the worst time since I'm up to my neck in bills as it is since my future-ex-boyfriend isn't working and I'm paying for all his crap too, and had just moved back to Florida, and then there was Christmas, and blah blah blah... So anyway, I ended up forgetting all about these bills and two of them (the hospital and anesthesia) were sent to a collection agency. I was really surprised and upset because I only ever received one bill from each of them, and it would have been nice if I had gotten a letter saying "If you don't send a payment you're going to collections" to spark some urgency or something, but jeez.

Anyway, what I'm wondering is, does it effect your credit the moment you're sent to collections? Or is there usually a certain time frame that you can pay it off before it messes things up? I'm freaking out over this, and I know $100-$200 doesn't seem like much but at this current moment for me it really is. I don't want to ask my parents to loan me the money but if I have to pay it in full in order to save my credit I guess I'll have to. I've never been sent to collections for anything before so I'm not quite sure what it means for me, aside from more stress!

 

I forgot to mention; If you set up a payment plan with these companies and you successfully follow thru then this will show up as a positive in your credit report that you were able to pay them off successfully.

Oh no! I have a bill from last January that was sent to collections last summer, and I haven't paid it off b/c my secondary insurance isn't paying for it. I better pay for it ASAP.

Medical bills that go to collection still goes on your credit report however many lending institutions overlook this as long as other creditors are paid such as credit cards, mortgage companies, car loans etc. We bought our first house 10 years ago and there was some hoops I had to jump in order for it to be approved because we filed Chapter 13 bankruptcy 15 years prior. And some of those medical bills didn't get in the Chapter 13. I still had to pay them before we were approved but all I had to do was give a letter to the lending company as to why the medical bills weren't paid. So yes, they should always be paid on time but they are lesser of the evil regarding bills - at least in lending institutions eyes. Of course there are always variations to this. It all depends on what you are going for in the future.