Chinese Mother-in-law went to the ER in the US – How do I deal with the Incoming Medical Bills?

I posted this in another subreddit with no luck.

Need recommendations as we have medical bills due from my mother-in-law’s visit to the ER from August.

She was experiencing severe shoulder pain and got x-rays, a sling and a prescription (which we weren’t even able to get filled because the hospital put down some of her info incorrectly and wouldn’t work with us to update it). My wife and I make decent money, but we’re already helping my parents off and on with money as well as several bills on our home repairs due to recent bad weather.

Alot of friends/family are telling us not to pay anything since the bill isn’t tied to our names (but they do have our home address from her paperwork) – but my wife doesn’t want to take any chances.

The physician bill is the largest (about $1500), the hospital bill is $495, and we already paid the first bill that came from radiology, as it was only $40. We called the physician billing dept. (TeamHealth) and they said the best they could do is 20% off the bill and if we wanted better than that, to call the hospital. We called the hospital and they said TeamHealth was lying, they can’t do any better, they only deal with the $495 and wouldn’t really offer any options for us as the person we dealt with didn’t seem to know how to work with a patient that couldn’t speak to them as she only speaks Mandarin.

So we’re in limbo as we’re not sure of what possible consequences could occur if we don’t pay, and the only financial assistance seems to be the discount towards the physician’s bill.

Any tips are welcome. Also, she doesn’t have traveler’s insurance.