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pupfoster1 · May 2010

Just wondering what advice I might give someone who is telling me he has gotten bad medical news and he does not have insurance or Medicare. I am blessed with excellent insurance so I don't have first hand experinece there. We live in Maryland.

Thanks all,

Sharon

apple · May 2010

I would think a treatment facility would know how it could be paid for. That's the best I can come up with.

dlb823 · May 2010

Sharon ~ My 27-year old son recently had a medical emergency that required surgery, and he had let his medical insurance lapse because he was annoyed about a ridiculously high co-pay on a much lesser claim a few months earlier. Anyway, we learned that everyone -- from the surgeon to the hospital -- reduced their published fees significantly for a cash patient, and all except the surgeon were willing to work out very reasonable payment plans. Although they were still huge bills, most of them ended up being no more than what a 30% insurance deductible would have been (i.e. a $10,000 ER bill that was reduced to $3,000). And there are also agencies (at least in California) in place to help if you need financial assistance. Maybe you could call one of the hospitals in your area and get some guidance and suggestions from them? Deanna

riley702 · May 2010

I went out of my insurance network to get into a clinical drug trial, and the hospital itself was more than willing to consolidate my bills and set up a reasonable payment schedule. They are a Catholic-affiliated hospital, so that may have had some influence, but this hospital's "corporate philosophy" is very compassionate. They told me to just get my care and we'd worry about the bills later. I don't think I'd have been treated this well if I had stayed in-network. Call the hospital's billing department. The more up-front you are with them from the beginning, the better terms you'll get, I think.

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