Medical Bill company taking me to court....

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

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

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

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, 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.

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.