It’s insane that this is the case these days, but I went through this years ago and ended up having to let the bill go to collections, just to get a payment plan on it. They even ended up discounting the bill heavily after a while and let me pay a reduced sum to close out the account. How is a literal collections agency more reasonable than a fucking hospital? (Also the medical bill was for an asthma inhaler refill visit to a small free standing ER which ended up costing >$3,000 for checking my vitals and handing me a prescription.