Incorrect hosptial bill turned over to CA now DV or ..

[selfprodigy]

I have successfully used a lot of information on the boards and to all the helpful members let me thank you dearly.

I've come into an interesting situation. I've been repair my credit / paying for delete working with CA etc to bring up my credit score.

Well to make a long story short i lost my job (company shut down) im collecting unemployment at the moment but i do have some savings.

I ended up in the hospital because of an electrolyte unbalance.

So i asked to sign up for the charity assistance program. They basically told me you made too much money last year. They don't really care that im getting about 1200 a month to live on presently. But the lady says send in your wife's pay check stubs and we will work something out.

The total hospital bill is around 2k...

Now i asked her to send me an itemized list. There is about 500 dollars of extra charges on there. For instance i was double charged for 2 iv's of potassium when i only received one (wife was there to witness it). Ive read that this happens constantly so I told the lady i would get back to her. My fault i let this go by for like 2 or 3 weeks.

Instead of the hospital calling me they just sent me to a slime ball collection agency out here. I just received a you have 30 days to pay this debt notice in the mail today. At this point i could care less about the charity program i just want the extra charges knocked off and a 12 month payment plan (she told me they had one).

Now, if i call the hospital and i set this all up do i have to DV the collection agency? What if the hospital wont talk to me how to contest a medical bill with CA if they dont have access to my medical records under the hippa laws?

Im willing to pay what i owe i just don't want to pay more than i owe, and i dont want my credit screwed up.

Any suggestions?