Single Old Cat, STP, or other experts, help with my little case,

http://web.wenxuecity.com/BBSView.php?SubID=law&MsgID=56153

last time I posted the above link asking questions about my medical bill dispute case, unfortunately, no one has time or seems care to answer it. Now that the case has a little new development and I have a new question, really hope the experts here can provide some answers. Really appreciate your help!

I really want to settle with them now since I come to realize that I do not have much hope to win the case, also the court is very far away. So my question is centering around how much bargaining power I have. There are some friends that suggest that it costs collectors a lot trying to collect debt. I also invest in a collection agenecy company called "PRAA", understand that they buy debts for pennys on a dollar. So I expect that the collector would be willing to negotiate with me. It turned out they don't. They told me they are not interested in settle when I called them asking for negotiation. Now here is my question: when the notice of court date is mailed to my apartment, if I just hide, refuse to come out to sign and acknowledge the receipt of mail, what could be bad consequency? My imagination is that if they find out the trouble to get me to the court, they will be willing to settle. But on the other hand I do not want to dig a deeper hole and bury myself in it.

So please help me with this.