Medical Bill company taking me to court....

eellek

I received a certified mail yesterday from the municipal court here. It's a summons for a medical bill that I thought was covered under the financial assistance thru the hospital. I was diagnosed in 2015... thought this was taken care of since I sent the Award letter from the hospital to the company... now I find out  I have to go to court. I am so upset, frustrated, stressed. I go for my mammogram in 2 weeks, so my nerves are shot.... I am stressed out completely because its that time of year again... and then this !

If you know of any resources or assistance please let me know.

if you been thru this please reach out and let me know what has happened.!

Thank You

Kelly

ksusan

Call your contact at the hospital. It may just be an error.

AmyQ

I'm sorry for this. I take it you don't have insurance? I agree call the hospital and see what the story is. Perhaps they'll work this out to your satisfaction without going to court. It costs them a lot of money to have an attorney represent them, so they may be in a position to compromise.

Good luck

Amy

edwards750

i would call too. Doesn't sound like they got the award info. It does cost a lot to sue someone. What $ are we talking about?

I know some hospitals are notorious for turning accounts over to Collections even though they have agreed to allow you to make payments and you are making them. Happened to us several times. I just ignored the collection agencies and kept paying the hospital regularly. It took awhile but we paid them off. Once they accept your payment it's considered an agreement between parties.

You sure don't need more stress at this time or ever for that matter. I would try and resolve it before it goes to court if you can.

Good luck!

Diane

wallycat

My DH made an excel spread sheet of incoming bills, insurance crap, blah, blah....we inadvertently missed $25.00 and we received a credit-collection notice. (just makes you wonder how compassionate hospitals are....NO...it's a business). I called and explained the THOUSANDS of dollars they received and would they accept a late payment. They did.

I'm not sure this compares to your situation but to echo everyone else...before you stress, phone them.

edwards750

Amen to that Wallycat. I understand they are a business and not a charity but I also know they have some leverage. I never appeal to their compassion - just their fairness.

We have health insurance but insurance companies seem to have less tolerance for us than those without any insurance. Okay your insurance paid a portion of your bill so you should have money immediately available to pay the difference which could be pretty sizable.

Don't get me wrong I'm grateful for our health coverage because had we not had it I can't imagine how DH and I could have affordedmy radiation treatments which cost in the thousands.

Diane

eellek

Less than $1200.00

I did not make any payments toward it, I thought the Hospital financial aid covered it.!

macb04

I had a bill for reconstruction surgery where they threatened tosend it to collection. They gave a discount if you paid by a certain time, like 2,000 discount or so. A lot of money to me to pay out of pocket. We made sur to pay on time, and then I couldn't get the hospital billing people to straighten it out, so I went over their heads to the Hospital CEO's Office. They connected me to a very nice woman who forced the billing department to apologize and to fix THEIR billing error. So go right to the top, cry a little and tug on their heart strings. Remind them how hard your bc life is, most don't have it so hard as us.

eellek

This bill is thru a third party... not the Hospital.! The Anethesiologist and Pathology are different from the Hospital I guess. I am so upset about this... and my 2 year Mammo is scheduled for Monday May 5. I am so scared, between the Bill and the Mammo, I feel like I am losing my mind.!

wallycat

eellek, those other offices are no different than a hospital. Before you assume bad things, can you phone each office and see what is doable. It could be a simple clerical error.

edwards750

Don't assume the bill is correct. Agree with Wallycat talk to the billing department. I worked at FedEx for years and they used to give a bonus to any employee who found substantial errors on their hospital bills. Apparently overcharging was rampant.

I know you are upset and understandably so but some of these hospitals and 3rd party types use intimidation as a tactic to get you to pay now.

If the bill is correct then work out a payment plan with them. Trust me they don't want to go to court. Don't agree to payments you can't manage. Of course they will tell you they have to have a set amount. Stick to your guns and budget. Something is better than getting a judgment against you.

Keep us posted.

Diane

Kicks

It seems odd that they didn't contact you about the bill they say you owe before filing in Court. But then 'odd things' do happen at times.

I ran into a problem when they first started using Veterans Choice for some of the out sourced appts. The first time my annual mammo was out sourced to VC instead of straight from VA as had been done for years, about 3 mths after it I started getting bills from the accounting office for the Group that the Radiology Clinic I go to is in, saying I owed for it - wrong. I had turned in (and still had copies of) my voucher/approval letter. Apparently, Veterans Choice didn't have a very good program set up for paying when Veterans Choice was starting up. It took about 9 mths to get it straightened out and paid. I was never threatened by the accounting office or told to pay them - they just said that they had to mail the bill to me until VC paid it -they had the paper work that authorized it and they would be refiling with them every month til they paid. So I'd call them every time I got a bill in the mail - they were always very nice and then call VC and raise Hades with them.. It was fiinally paid. I was outsourced to VC for a Retina Specialist but the Specialist I want to see (my fantastic Dr passed away) will not take patients who have VC because VC was so bad about not paying when it first started up. I've heard of a lot of people who have had issues with VC - most worse than mine.

Have you talked to the Patient Affairs or Patient Advocate at the Hospital about the authorization? Or the Patient Affairs/Advocate at the Offices that are a problem? State/County Medical Board? Your local State Senator or Representative? Can't hurt to talk to anyone that might be able to give some assistance.