How long can a doctor wait to bill you after services are rendered in Texas?

Heres the best answer I can come up with.

Texas has a 4 year statute of limitations for bad debt. This means that the provider/Doctor Who holds the debt cannot sue you if 4 years have surpassed since the debt was incurred. Generally the debt begins the day the service was provided. Today is September 09/02/2011 and if the bad debt occurred 09/01/2007 than the provider cannot sue you. However, this does not mean your off the hook.

Anyone who can prove the debt exists has up to 7 years to place the debt onto your credit report. Generally provider's have their patients sign agreements that they can use these means if your debt has not been paid.

My sister was billed yesterday for services in january of 2010, but the debt is still good because she had her appendix removed. My dad was billed 4 years after he had services from a physical medicine/chiropractic doctor. I negotiated and got them to settle for 35% of the original debt amount, but we had to pay in full around $700. $700 was worth not having it on my credit report. If they had billed us a year before and tried to sue us, I would have argued untimely billing and that they were abusing their statute of limitation rights.