<prompt> Human: Hi,I hope this is the right place to post this, not sure so please forgive me. So I was in an accident, did not have health insurance I do now, and had to go to the hospital. Long story short, I submitted by tax returns, and the hospital waived all my fees 900. Turns out, the doctors billed me separately, and this was not waived but was reduced. I only received one bill, kinda forgot about it, so I ended up not paying, and just recently got a call from a collection agency. I am a grad student, and make below 11k a year, and really cant afford to pay this bill.So am I better off calling them and working out some kind of low payment method I really cant swing more than 20 a month, is that even feasible? Or do I just ignore it and let it do its thing? Has it already hurt my credit? Should I care about that? Thanks for your help, I normally am savvy in most things, but this got away from me. Wondering how I should clean up the mess.  <response>: While both responders are correct, one of them was being a complete douche. So, to clarify, YES you need to pay it. Call them and explain that you would like to do your best to pay it off and negotiate some kind of repayment plan. 