Defenses to claims for unpaid medical bills: Inadequate Hospital Financial Assistance
State law and other laws place limitations on how much and in what ways hospitals can charge you for medical care. The law also limits the tactics hospitals and collections agencies can use to collect medical debt. Here is a list of hospital financial assistance defenses available to defendants in medical debt collection cases:
1. The hospital did not reduce your charges, as required by law. All public and private hospitals are required to reduce charges for patients who do not have insur- ance and who can show their income is below a cer- tain amount.
2. The hospital did not offer you an installment plan and your income is below a certain amount.
3. The hospital did not notify you that financial assis- tance may have been available or notify you in a lan- guage you understand.
4. The hospital did not help you apply for financial as- sistance or offer assistance in a language you under- stand. The law requires that applying for hospital fi- nancial assistance not be difficult or complicated.
5. You had a financial assistance application pending, and the hospital sent your debt to a collection agency. 6. You were eligible for Medicaid or had Medicaid cov- erage, and the hospital sent your debt to a collection agency.
Starting Score: 656