<prompt> Human: Longtime lurker here, I apologize if this isnt the correct forum. About 4 years ago while I was still in college and under the university insurance plan I was referred from student health services to go get some medical tests done at the medical center thats associated with my university. Last week, I got a notice from the medical center claiming that they recently conducted an audit of their records and that I owe them an unpaid balance of about 400 for the services I received. I verified that the address and phone number provided actually belonged to the medical center to make sure I wasnt being scammed and then spoke to them to request documentation explaining why they felt I owe them 400. I am still awaiting what they sent me. In the mean time, is there any way to dispute the charge so as to avoid paying it without risking them sending it to collections? Im hoping to buy a condo next year and I cant afford having anything that might harm my credit score. Oh, and if it matters, I live and attended college in the state of California.I feel like this is ridiculous because it took them so long to send me this bill, at a time when I dont have any of the paperwork associated with my university health plan or evidence of my referral from student health services, making it difficult to argue that this should have been covered by my insurance. If anyone has been in this situation before, I would appreciate your advice. EDIT: thanks for all the advice, everyone. One thing I want to add though is that people keep telling me that the medical center cant do anything because the 4-year statute of limitations has run on the claim. That appears to be wrong for two reasons. First, it seems that the SOL is triggered off of the date the bill became overdue. Im not sure what that date is, but I assume its at least 30 days after the date of service, which was about 3 years and 51 weeks ago. So that means I have at least another 37 days to go. Second, and more importantly, I havent found any evidence that, even if the SOL has run, that would prohibit the medical center from reporting the unpaid bill to the credit reporting agencies. Thats what I am really worried about, since I plan on applying for a mortgage soon and a lower credit score could translate to 1000s more in interest payments. Assistant: If you were insured, their contract with your insured carrier may have a clause about how long they are allowed to take to bill you. This is called Timely Filling. With some insurance carriers if you take 60 days to submit the claim, they can just tell the doctorhospital tough shit, guess that was free. You might also check with your state department of insurance , or health and human services. There may be other laws that dictate how long they can take to bill you for something. They might just be hoping you are unaware. Human: This was the case with my carrier in law school, however, Id encourage OP to try to work it out with the clinic in as much as possible and get any agreement that nothing is owed in writing. Despite this, when I was in a similar situation, the provider simply sent the full amount to collections without informing me after BCBS told them to screw off. I stupidly believed the CA when they accepted my documentation showing I wasnt responsible for the debt and told me it would be removed from my credit report and collections would cease. They waited until the fair debt collection statute expired and re-reported. I dispute it when it pops up and it gets removed, but I have to keep on top of it for another 4 years since no lawyer will bother helping me put a stop to it without access to punitive damages. Buying my house was an absolute nightmare with the looming fear that it would crop up during the mortgage process. Hopefully the provider OP used is less scuzzy.edited for poor sentence structureAssistant: Thats really scary. If I cant get something in writing from the medical center saying I owe a zero balance, Ill probably just pay it. Even if I cant negotiate a lesser amount, 400 is cheaper than the 1000s in interest I could pay on a mortgage  <response>: Thats what they generally want people to do. The fear of owing on such a small balance will prompt people to pay. I had a similar issue where a legitimate collection agency filed a collection and called me saying I owed 500 to a cell phone company... 9 years ago. They expected me to pay. Told them to prove my debt in writing. This song and dance went on for about a year before they finally threw in the towel, struck the collection from my credit report and sent me a letter confirming. Stick in there. Dont just give in. 