My son was seen in January at the emergency room. We received and paid the ambulance bill and when we did not receive a hospital bill my husband called and was told we did not have a balance and it must have been paid by insurance.
Cut to last week and we have started to receive calls from a collection agency. The physicians office bills separately from the emergency department and they had a wrong address on file so we never received the bill. No other attempt to contact us was made. Husband reached out, corrected address, and they sent us a new statement.
Both online and by phone we are unable to pay the new statement which is due Aug 13th, 2025. When connected with an agent they state they cannot collect the payment and that we must contact the collection agency to pay. The last agent also told me that their system shows we have a balance of $165 but the statement sent by mail shows the balance at $895.
What are my options to eliminate this balance? Legally I have to, and should I pay the collections agency? What if anything should I ask the collections agency to provide before submitting payment?
Location: Wyoming. Medical services were received in Colorado.