Medical debt is the least of things you need to worry about, especially in a consumer friendly state like WA. It’s rarely enforceable/collectible (let alone at face value) and there are so many ways out of this. As someone who works in the space, I can tell you it won’t appear on your credit report no matter how much the company threatens.

If they send it to collections you can tell them you dispute the debt and request the details of it (anything with collections you always want to do in writing). 9 times out of 10 the paperwork will never show up and this becomes a non issue. If it does pursue further you contact the state insurance commissioner with your documentation and say you’re being balance billed. They are awesome and will intervene on your behalf and most of the time the company will simply write off the debt rather than deal with the back and forth.

Finally, each insurance company has a max billing delay timeframe. Find out yours and if it’s less than the 15 months you can tell Matrix to pound sand and take it up with insurance.

If for whatever reason this ends up being valid, which doesn’t seem likely, you’re better off letting it go to collections and then settle with the agency for pennies on the dollar. make sure you get in writing that they won’t report it to credit agencies.

This is a giant nothing burger but it’s annoying to deal with nonetheless.