I've done it. I owed a $975 remainder on a $3000 e-room visit. I sent an email asking if they'd discuss a settlement and they just called me and said the debt

I've done it. I owed a $975 remainder on a $3000 e-room visit. I sent an email asking if they'd discuss a settlement and they just called me and said the debt would be written off completely. I was going to open the negotiation at $900 because that's what I had left in my HSA account. So clearly it pays to ask. In my case it probably also helped that I had already paid more than half the bill. But I didn't even have to plead poverty - I just said something along the lines of "I'm trying to figure out how to best deploy the funds I have, would you discuss a settlement"?