I need medical bills advice?

HAHAHA. I spent 3 days in the hospital and got a 15K bill. All they did was a IV and shit food. This was around 5 years ago for perspective. I just tossed the bills in the trash and never opened them.

1300 isn’t bad so I would talk to them You might be able to pay 30 a month. They are pretty flexible. If they disagree tell them to suck your dick. They can’t put you in jail.

It will fuck your credit but welcome to the club. I was able to rent a place with shit credit.

Not in the USA but check the following.

Did Medi-Cal receive the bills from the hospital? Contact them in writing and by phone. Keep the letter for proof. Fax the letter with the hospital bill. Then notify the hospital that you have contacted the medical insurance company and that today was your first correspondence from them (The hospital).

You are protected by the Credit Act Laws in your country.

You cannot be handed over if you had received no prior warning.

If all else fails you can pay it off for a minimal amount ask for reduced interest.

Keep in constant contact with the hospital finance office and insist that they follow up on the Medi-Cal application. Tell them to remove your account from the collection. Do not despair, this is common practice to try to get their payment earlier than the agency payment.

My son went through the same thing and the hospital eventually was able to get it settled.

Contact the collection agency and tell them it has already been settled and the hospital is waiting for the Medical payment.

The OP says it was about 8 months ago but I was under the impression America has healthcare now? Since they are only getting the bill now couldn’t they have it paid by whatever healthcare America has now? ( universal healthcare or something like it )

@trailsillustrated No… Haha… obamacare has yet to fully instituted and it is more like employers now have to offer health insurance… though that deadline has been delayed and citizens will eventually have to have proof of health insurance.
That people can no longer be denied acceptance because of prior condition except many health insurance companies have been grandfathered out of that one…

At least that is my understanding which is probably incomplete and might be slightly inaccurate. Each state might be a bit different.

@_Whitetigress 1300 for a hospital visit isn’t bad. I have been admitted one night in the hospital. They broke the payment downs this didn’t include test or treatment and certainly not food since I didn’t get any… the over night stay cost me over 7000.. then I got a doctor bill a pathology bill, a radiology bill, a bill from the er.

Make sure that this is the only bill other words. Make sure they did charge the state program and how much that covered… Since it is in a third party collections they will say you have to deal with them. I have always just went with that. But I told the collections company I would not only pay one serivce fee and I dictated the payments. They were going to charge me 12 dollars every time I made a payment. As long as you make one payment a month they have never quibbled an amount. I called them every month and just paid what I could afford though I did cut as many corners as I could riding my bike to work and back saving gas. Not getting a new cellphone.. only going out to eat every two weeks unless someone else was paying..etc.

By the way as of today I just became officially debt free. Though my only debt for years has medical. It still was a major relief. You can get there! Carve twenty or thirty dollars out of you know where best. Pay more if you can if not don’t sweat it.

Oh and physicals and community sliding scale or even urgent or first care is way better alternative to hospitals in the long term. Hospitals are the most expensive and you get the least amount of treatment from them unless you need surgery right away. Avoid those. Never assume a bill taken care of the world just doesn’t work that way follow up… and get a reciept always!

@_Whitetigress Don’t panic and don’t quit school. Hospital bills are generally negotiable; they charge a lot to scare you. Write a letter explaining about the Medi-Cal application and that you were led to beleive it would be paid by them. Send it to the collection agency, the hospital finance department and Medi-Cal. Then wait for a response. If the worst comes to the worst, you should be able to negotiate a reduced fee and pay it off gradually

22 years ago, I was on COBRA benefits when I gave birth to my son. The hospital bill for my portion was over $2000, and I sent them $10.00 a month some months. My son was nearly 3 before it was paid off.

The bigger issue in this case was that you did not get any bills, nor did you get an Explanation Of Benefits (EOB) from the program which you were told would cover the bill – someone should have communicated with you in some way before this was sent into Collections. Contact the hospital office that helped you sign up for the program – ideally the same person you dealt with then – and start with them in getting it straightened out.

I don’t understand all the details. You were approved for the medi-cal, so was the hospital paid a partial amount and now you owe the balance? If that is the case, call the hospital and they will most likely let you pay as little as $10 a month if you give them a credit card to automatically charge you. However, since it is already in collections it makes it a little more complicated, but they might be able to stop that process. Usually there are at least three billing cycles before something goes to collections, did you never receive a bill before this? If the hospital was paid by medi-cal and you should not be receiving a bill, then I would call and explain the mix up, hopefully they will help straighten it out. If they are not helpful you will have to start getting bitchy which is exhausting unfortuneately. It might be a case of the lef hand does not know what the right is doing, and they were paid and at the same time a bill went out anyway.

First things first is to see if the hospital received payment from medi-cal.

Contact the hospital’s billing office IMMEDIATELY and explain your circumstances. Anyone with half a brain will know that you’re acting in good faith and taking your obligation seriously. Then, negotiate a payment plan. Could you afford to pay $100 per month? That might be reasonable.

The hospital’s already waited 8 months for payment. If the billing office is unwilling to work with you, you’ll need to default. It’s in the hospital’s best interests to be flexible; it has a choice of collecting $1,300 over the next year or collecting $0.

Welcome to healthcare in the U.S., as it’s been for many years. In this country, medical care isn’t a human right, it’s a privilege for those who can afford it.

I just want to say again that you may be able to negotiate a payment plan but possibly a lower fee as well.

Our hospital has an ombudsman system to help patients through messes such as you find yourself. Perhaps yours does also.

As already stated. I would contact hospital billing as well and take all your documents with you. Do not do it over the phone. Go and actually talk to someone in person. Let them make copies of your paper-work. One thing I don’t get. Are you still under the age of 23 and are a full time student. If you are, then you should be under your parents medical care plan if they have one. It may be that you were denied because they found out that you are still their dependent.
But do go and straighten it out. It is not uncommon for records to be confused.

My husband once received a bill from a doctor for the same procedure that we know we had paid off. It turned out that it was a different date and a different patient with the same unusual name in the same city. Only difference was he was an older gentleman and had a middle name and of course a different address. They tried to bill my husbands insurance twice for the same procedure and of course my husbands insurance denied it.

Once it is fixed make sure that you get a note saying that it either has been paid or that a payment agreement has been worked out and send a copy to the collection agency. Do not depend on the hospital to fix it.

I was told once that ‘everyone has unpaid medical bills, so we don’t even really count those’ because the loan officer couldn’t believe my good history.

My last ER visit was over $14k, and that is on top of the bill for the attending physician. Fortunately, I had insurance, so I only paid ~$200 for everything, but my point is that you had most of your bill paid and are being billed for probably 10%.

My experience is that medical care providers are pretty lenient on repayment if you keep in touch with them. Last time I owed $750 for physical therapy, they were fine with $50/month. Just call them up and explain your situation; they’re probably more than willing to work with you. Just don’t blow them off or there will be problems.