UPDATE: Bill may be fraudulent! -- New Medical Collection from last year :(

[Anonymous]

So apparently my previous insurance company did not pay a hospital I visited last year. I moved and somehow missed the notification that this occurred.

It's for $841 and says that the deliquency was in 11/2015. 

Is HIPAA still the right route to take? I really do not want to get sued, since this was so recent. 

I've got no idea why the insurance company didn't pay it, either. My insurance was pretty crappy, so my guess is that they decided this was the copayment I'd be left with, though the original bill wasn't much more than this, if any. >.<

- C

[RobertEG]

Have you exhausted the possibility of getting the debt paid by medical insurance?

If you can get it paid by an insuror, then the recent consent agreement between the CRAs and the NYS Office of the AG can serve as basis for getting the collection removed without any involvment of the debt collector.....

[Anonymous]

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@RobertEG wrote:

Have you exhausted the possibility of getting the debt paid by medical insurance?

If you can get it paid by an insuror, then the recent consent agreement between the CRAs and the NYS Office of the AG can serve as basis for getting the collection removed without any involvment of the debt collector.....

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I haven't called them yet, due to the holiday, but I will tomorrow. I doubt they will do anything, the company I worked for then had changed insurance companies and the new insurance policies were truly awful. I'm regretting even going to the hospital now, and don't even recall what I was even treated for now. I think I had an ear infection or something dumb. >.<

- C

[RonM21]

It would be nice if the insurance covers it and rids of this issue. That would be the best thing that can happen.

[Anonymous]

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@RM21 wrote:
It would be nice if the insurance covers it and rids of this issue. That would be the best thing that can happen.

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I haven't ever had to appeal an insurance decision before, and if it's due to the deductible (I recall after the change it was like $5000, which is ridiculous given how much we paid monthly for the "coverage") would I even be able to?

- C

[Anonymous]

Check with the hospital to see if they billed the insurance. If they did and it was denied they should have the reason of not contact the insurer and get the Explanation of Benefits for that visit. Of the hospital didn't bill give them the info and ask them to recall the debt and bill insurance.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:
Check with the hospital to see if they billed the insurance. If they did and it was denied they should have the reason of not contact the insurer and get the Explanation of Benefits for that visit. Of the hospital didn't bill give them the info and ask them to recall the debt and bill insurance.

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I'll give them a call tomorrow, and see what I can find out.

- C

[gdale6]

Here are the steps to go thru if insurance isnt going to cover it. 

For unpaid medical debt that is reporting on your CR:

1. Call the OC and see if you qualify for Charity Care
2. If not then ask that they recall the collection in exchange for full payment
3. Send the reporting CA a PFD offer
4. Google the HIPAA Process and contact its creator for help

[Anonymous]

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@gdale6 wrote:

Here are the steps to go thru if insurance isnt going to cover it. 

For unpaid medical debt that is reporting on your CR:

1. Call the OC and see if you qualify for Charity Care
2. If not then ask that they recall the collection in exchange for full payment
3. Send the reporting CA a PFD offer
4. Google the HIPAA Process and contact its creator for help

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I checked the hospital's documents and the amount of the debt has to exceed 10% of my income to qualify for charity care, since it doesn't, I called the insurance company to see why they didn't pay the bill, and was told (as I suspected, that I hadn't satisfied my $5,000 in-network deductible, so it was applied to the that). It's so frustrating to think that I was paying $400 a month for health insurance and wound up with a bill for the ONLY visit to any sort of doctor that I had. It would have cost me less if I just forgoed health insurance at all!

I'm going to call the hospital's billing department when they open in a couple of hours to see if they will recall the debt for a pif. I really wanted to use my savings for a big deposit on a discover secured card, but I guess I don't have much choice. :/ Hopefully they will recall it. 

[Anonymous]

Well, the hospital doesn't care about my situation and told me to contact the collection agency, they wouldn't even discuss the account with me. This was from September! 

I guess that means I'm onto step 3. I hope they are better about this than the hospital.

Feeling super down.