Hospital Bill Help!

[Anonymous]

I was in the hospital in November with major surgery, without insurance, and I thought that as long as you made a consistent payment, even of a small amount, they couldn't turn you in to the credit bureau.  Is that an old law?  At what point can they turn you in and how can I avoid them doing that? Any advice would be appreciated.

[Anonymous]

Contact them.  Ask them if they have any assistance programs.  Ask them if they can "forgive" some of the bill.  Make payment arrangements with them.

*****

I was airlifted on my honeymoon.  Didn't know our insurance situation.  They had a program that would forgive most of the debt.

[Anonymous]

If you set up a consistent payment plan with them they will not send you collections. 

I am sorry for your troubles!

[Anonymous]

That is what I did, I called the hospital and arranged small monthly payment.   The said yes, now I pay 50 bucks a month with no interest, it has been 5 years and I still send in my 50 bucks a month.  I only owe now 450$.  They should not turn you over to a Collection Agency, most hospitals just want their money and will accept anything. 

Was it a catholic hospital?  If so ask for charity, they give tons of money back to the community in the form of freebee's.  I know asking for charity is hard to do, but all those rich doctors wives have to do something with their time so they work on doing stuff for the hospital.  Most of the time hospitals will forgive a % of the amount due.  I would call the Billing department and ask for the paperwork for charity.  When you fill out the paper it will feel that they want everything old tax returns, pay stubs, water and power bills, and copies of bank statement. 

I work as an Respiratory Therapist at a Catholic Hospital, and I have Patients who come in all the time and can't pay their bills, we are trained to direct them to billing department and ask for charity.  At my hospital it gives over 10 million a year in charity to people who need help paying their hospital bill.

Also, when I had my hospital bill with out insurance, my bill as huge like 15000 huge.  I called charity and they really knocked a bit off if it.  Have hope you will get through this.

Michelle

Message Edited by MichelleRichards65 on 06-18-2008 07:43 AM

[Anonymous]

Thanks.  I was a travel nurse at that hospital for 14 months, and the insurance from my company had not taken effect and I HAD to have a 20 lb ovarian cyst removed.  I asked about the charity, and they said since I didn't live there, I didn't qualify.  I really don't understand that, since I lived there at the time of the surgery.  They now want me to pay 332.10 for the next 7 years!!!  I don't mind paying 100.00 a month, but not 332.10!!!!!!!!!!  Anyway, I'm gonna call them back, but I think it's CRAZY!

[haulingthescoreup]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Thanks. I was a travel nurse at that hospital for 14 months, and the insurance from my company had not taken effect and I HAD to have a 20 lb ovarian cyst removed. I asked about the charity, and they said since I didn't live there, I didn't qualify. I really don't understand that, since I lived there at the time of the surgery. They now want me to pay 332.10 for the next 7 years!!! I don't mind paying 100.00 a month, but not 332.10!!!!!!!!!! Anyway, I'm gonna call them back, but I think it's CRAZY!

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If you have any buddies that work in hospital billing (anywhere), see if you can find out the negotiated rate that Blue Cross/ Blue Shield or other insurance companies would have paid, or even what your own insurance would have paid, if it had been in effect at the time. You can also try asking your own company. Then see if you can get the hospital to agree to settle for that amount, maybe with fair interest if you can't pay it off right away.

One of the shameful realities of our healthcare system is that uninsured people who are willing to pay cough up far more money than do the insurance companies and Medicare/Medicaid, who have negotiated better deals. They are essentially picking up the burden of the non-payers and discount payers. There is a large Mennonite community about 100 miles from where we live. They don't use standard health insurance; the community as a whole pays medical bills. After paying through the nose at local hospitals, they worked out a better rate, comparable to that of BC/BS, because the hospitals know that they will pay, and they valued their business.

[fishbjc]

Oh, what a bunch of BS!  I would contact the hospital administrator, explain the situation, and go from there.  They can at least, charge you usual and customary.

As long as they're receiving payments they won't turn you to collections.  It usually goes to their own internal department first.

This pizzes me off....I have a friend, who didn't have insurance because he didn't want to pay for it.  He ended up in the hospital, with a $50k bill and the entire bill was forgiven.

Granted, he didn't have any assets, but still.......

[Anonymous]

My aunt was making payments to a bill in the amount of 200 per month. She missed sending a payment by like 2 weeks and they sent it to NCO. She called the hospital and ask why it was sent to NCO when she had been making payments and they told her no payment contract was set up just a verbal agreement at the time of service. She set up a payment plan of 100 per month and they sent the payment contract by mail and supposedly the NCO letters are supposed to stop, time will tell this was about 2 - 3 weeks ago. Good Luck with your situation!

Message Edited by Bran9192 on 06-19-2008 09:40 AM

[demi]

I sat thru an intresting presentation last week by the CEO of our local Hospital (fairly small).  It is absolutely amazing what little percentage of the people in the hospital are actually self (including work insured) and payers.  The vast majority are seniors on medicare/medical and the rest is welfare or indigent.  As the paying percentage gets smaller and smaller, the hospitals are really hit hard, this is really the only sector of patients that breaks even for them.  Doesn't help much, but found it interesting.

I also wonder, as in a previous post, if you can negotiate an insurance billing amount.  I am always amazed when I get my bills how much it would be if I wasn't insured.  Don't know if they are real figures, figure its some type of write of plan when I was billed 30,000 for a kidney stone removal and the insurance paid 5,000, rest was written off...have to think its a tax thing (this was just the Dr.s group, not the hospital)

Also, wow, what cyst...been there, done that, but mine was miniscule compared to yours.