<prompt> Human: So I went to the hospital back in February for reasons I will not discuss here. I have great health insurance through my employer that does cover hospital stays. I didnt yet have the card at the time of the stay because I just got the insurance and they hadnt mailed it to me yet, but I was covered during that time.I have since been on the phone with the hospitals billing department and my insurer. The insurer says I am covered and the hospital needs to submit a claim. The hospital keeps claiming they dont have my information despite me giving them the card number over the phone and even having a representative from the insurer talk to them in a 3-way call.Now the bill has gone to the collections agency and hospital refuses to even try to submit a claim to the insurer, stating that its up to the collections agency and then rudely hanging up on me. The collections agency says I have to take it up with the hospital when I explain the situation to them.Now I have people from India constantly blowing up my phone and I dont want this bullshit to drag down my credit score so far it has not appeared on my credit karma reports. Can someone please tell me how to deal with this?Assistant: Have an attorney write a letter to someone high up at the hospital. Might cost you a couple hundred. Make part of that letter that if they dont sort this out plus reimburse for his fees up to that point youll sue them until theyre a triage tent.Human: I second this. Some people get intimidated when lawyers come up, but keep in mind that all lawyers at least the ones who have availability, and the ones youd want to work with will be willing to talk to you for free, and you can get most simple matters like this handled for a couple hundred bucks. Ive hired and worked with lawyers on many occasions and never paid more than that. The stories you hear about thousands of dollars spent on lawyers come from things that went to court. You can at least call some up and get legal advice, and a correctgood plan of action from them, and then pay a reasonable amount for that plan to be implemented.The other thing I would say, is that make sure youre documenting everything. Look at your phone records, and write down the exact times and lengths of calls. Who you spoke with, what was discussed. Keep all letters that the hospital and collections agencies send you. Ideally, you would have had some sort of paper trail of sorting this out with the hospital, and, like other posters have said, going in person to their billing department and getting firm receipts and confirmations is best. Good lessons for the future. While youre calling up lawyers, you also need to call your insurance company again. If the person youre talking to seems at all confused or isnt able to state firm, correct facts Uh, Im pretty sure that such-and-such is the case make sure that your call is escalated. Assistant: Thanks, I have everything documented as best as I could just in case the worst happened, and it did.  <response>: Thats great. Also, when you speak with them via phone, ask them to spell out their names. Then spell them back. Its useful and helps them realize they need to take you seriously when youre talking with them. Always be very polite, but specific and persistent. They bank on people being shaky on the details, meanwhile, their own phone and ticketing systems track your every conversationemail for them. 