Hospital/ Medical Collection Agencies

Have you checked with the insurance company why the bills haven't been paid? It seems that they have already paid pretty good amount towards the expenses.

Have you went to an out-of-network hospital? I'm asking since this situation often arises when the patient chooses a hospital out-side-the-network.

Anyway, regarding collection...

Well, the collectors can take you to the small claims court and they may also get a judgment against you. But whether or not they would be able to garnish your wage would depend upon the state laws, and not all states would allow wage garnishment. Even if they win a wage garnishment judgment, it'd not take effect till you get a job.

Further, you can check with Trinity but if they have already sold the account to the collection they might not longer have an authority over it. The collection agencies too set up payment plans but make sure that you indeed owe them what they say you owe, i.e. validate the debt before making payment arrangements.

Based on what you've said, your carrier paid out $65,000 so far. What kind of plan did you have: was it one where the carrier would pay out 80 percent and you would pay 20 percent? I'm just trying to get an idea of where you are at.
Also, when you lost your job, did you get the option to Cobra? I know that Cobra costs are temporarily reasonable right now, due to the bad economy.
I would ask for an itemized bill from the hospital--the reason it's good to do this is to see that you received everything they billed you for.
Working for a major hospital chain, I know how easy it is to put something on a bill in error. Also, call the hospital's business office, explain the situation and see if they don't have some kind of a program that could help you. Might be worth a shot....