medical bill

[Anonymous]

Anyone know about medical bills?. We just got ours from being in the hospital last week, and the total between the doctor, the ER, the surgery, and all the goodies, came to $15,000 or more. My question, is, if we set up a payment plan, which we can, and the least they will accept is $50 a month, can they take us to collections if we pay what we can afford, like $30 or $40 a month. Thats what we can afford, but the $50 is the least they will accept. Any advice?. I dont want these bills to ruin our credit, which is good.

[guiness56]

I have seen where someone made arrangements and they still sent them to collections while they were paying.  I don't know if it was legal or not.

Have you considered asking them for financial assistance?  Most hospitals offer this.

[Anonymous]

yes, we have filled out the paperwork, for assistance , charity, reduced billed, whatever helps. Now we wait to see if they can help or not

[Jazzzy]

If you truly don't want these medical bills to affect your credit, then you need to scrimp and save to give them the $50/month. That is not very much money on a $15k bill. I'd try to get this bill out of my life ASAP. The longer it goes, the more the threat to your credit report.

[guiness56]

---

@Anonymous wrote:
yes, we have filled out the paperwork, for assistance , charity, reduced billed, whatever helps. Now we wait to see if they can help or not

---

 Don't let it end up on your CR as a CA.  For something that large it could easily turn into a lawsuit.

 Go back to the hospital, or call, to find out the progress of your paperwork.  See if they need anything else.

 My son filled out this kind of paperwork and he never heard anything from them.  It ended up on his CR. 

 Apparently they needed more information but did not bother to try and contact him.

 I took a while but he finally got it off the CR.

Message Edited by guiness56 on 03-07-2010 01:17 PM

[keith021]

---

@Anonymous wrote:
Anyone know about medical bills?. We just got ours from being in the hospital last week, and the total between the doctor, the ER, the surgery, and all the goodies, came to $15,000 or more. My question, is, if we set up a payment plan, which we can, and the least they will accept is $50 a month, can they take us to collections if we pay what we can afford, like $30 or $40 a month. Thats what we can afford, but the $50 is the least they will accept. Any advice?. I dont want these bills to ruin our credit, which is good.

---

I received bills from the ER and doctor that visited me while I was in the hospital. They were for the deductibles and other misc. fees that my insurance didn't cover. I was able to set up monthly payment arrangements with my local ER and the doctor. I pay $25/month to the ER and $10/month to the physician. Neither of my bills was sent to outside collection agencies. I call in each month to make my payments and receive receipts promptly within 3 days after making the payments.

Hopefully the ER you visited and doctor will set something up with you. I speak with someone in the billing dept. at the ER locally and the physician billing company is out of state.