This was a standing problem, something to do with her colon, but not particularly serious. She went to the public clinic and they turned her away and told her to go to the hospital. The hospital did a CAT scan and a few other tests. On the way out she was handed a bill for $12000.
Now this woman is not really mentally capable of making her own decisions. She’s mentally slow, as they say. She had no idea what she was getting herself in to. She and her husband can come up with the money if they have to, but it will clean them out. They will have nothing left.
They asked me to check around to see what kind of redress they might have. They can hire a lawyer of course, but the lawyer will clear them out as well, so that’s only a last resort. They are near retirement age and feel like they’ve been hustled.
A friend of theirs told them to just not pay and credit rating be damned. Would anyone out there have any ideas on this matter?
I will only say I am not surprised as a friend was billed $9000 for two pills and less than 10 minutes of a doctor’s time… no scans of any kind. If they own their home and can afford the credit hit, I’d consider not paying, but I’d first try to negotiate… offer something far far less.
Every hospital has some sort of “charity care” financial aid. She should talk to them right away - and I do mean right away. If she lets it go unpaid, they’re far less likely to work with her than if she keeps in quick and constant communication with them. The phone number will be right there on the bill.
One really easy thing to do is ask to see their list of “reasonable and customary” charges for the billed procedures. That’s what they charge to insurance companies for patients with insurance, and it’s probably half or even less of what your friend got billed. Many hospitals and private physicians will give anyone that rate if you just *ask *for it. If that still doesn’t get it low enough, keep asking what they can do to work it out. They’re likely to do some combination of reducing the bill, creating a payment plan so that she can pay over time or simply writing off the whole thing as charity care.
It’s important that she be realistic with what they really can afford to pay each month. The hospital is likely to suggest she pay something like $1000 or so each month. If she can’t do that, she should say so (again, right away) and come up with a counter offer that’s more realistic for her. Again, talking with them is important. Ignore them, or say yes and then not be able to pay it, and they’ll turn ugly. Keep communication going, and she may have to pay as little as $10 a month (for forever, obviously, but still…better than ruining your credit when entering retirement age.)
Given that the woman is mentally slow, is it clear that the amount of the bill is actually $12,000?
It is possible that she is what they call in some places a “vulnerable adult” - someone over the age of majority but not responsible for herself.
Most hospitals have a social services department for charity care. It might help to contact them. Just saying “I won’t pay” is not a good idea - the hospital can come after the couple for payment.
Thirding the suggestion to contact the hospital about charity care, or at least talk to them and work out a billing schedule. It’s possible she may qualify for enough charity care that they won’t have to pay the bill at all.
If you can’t get anywhere there or can’t figure out who to call re: charity care, find out of the hospital has a foundation (they’re the people that raise the money for the charity care, among other things) - and contact them.
Is the woman’s husband mentally able to do this, or is there someone who can start contacting people on their behalf? People in billing will probably need to talk directly to her, but other people could help her get information.
Simply not paying, without bothering to try and work out an arrangement with the hospital, is a horrible idea.
One of my wife’s last chemo sessions cost over $6,000 for 5 hours, which included one unit of blood (because her red blood cell count was too low) and a single Darboepoetin shot that cost $1500 by itself.
The thing about charity care is it’s usually applied first to emergencies.
For example if a hospital has to provide say $10,000,000 in charity, it also has the ability to decide to whom it gives that money to. Usually it goes to people who walk into the ER with heart attacks, strokes and accidents.
That doesn’t mean she shouldn’t try. If you have assets you’re very unlikely to get much off. Maybe 10% off. On a $12,000 bill that amounts to $10,800 owed, not much help there.
What I would do is simply tell the hospital, “I cannot pay.” I can give you “this much,” take it or leave it.
If the hospital doesn’t have your SS# it will be difficult for them to hit her credit. And they are unlikely to sue. It depends on the hospital. For profit hospitals and some religious based hopsitals are very aggressive with collections.
But if you say “I can only give you $25.00 a month.” it may help you get a reduced bill. If she gets it put on her credit THEN settles, it looks really bad. That will come off as a “Debt Settled” for seven years and it is only one step above a bankruptcy in terms of effecting one’s credit.
I have a friend who works a minimum wage job, no insurance - she was holding a pen in her mouth, started coughing, and inhaled the cap of the pen - it ended up in her bronchial tubes. An ambulance took her to the emergency room, they X-rayed her, sedated her, retrieved the pen cap…Total came to around $10,000. She did contact the financial office of the hospital right away and they were very understanding about her financial situation, and worked with her. She had to write a couple of letters stating hardship on repaying. The hospital wrote off most of the bill and she ended up owing about $1,000, if that. She paid for the ambulance in monthly installments of about $25 a month, and also made monthly payments to either the doctor or the anesthesiologist.
With so many people unemployed, no insurance, not much money, I would certainly hope all the hospitals have some kind of charity care financial aid! What else are they gonna do, can’t get blood from a stone.
European will chime in about how UNBELIEVABLE it is that Americans have to pay for hospital care in 3…2…1…
But, no, tell them that you can only pay $10/month; is that acceptable? Negotiate and then after about 6 months or so, tell them that you “might” be able to borrow a couple of thousand if they would take that as a payoff. Every hospital I’ve dealt with is very generous with collections.
All hospitals do have a mechanism for treating the uninsured. One way they pay for this care is by shifting the cost to those with insurance. That’s one reason why you end up paying ten bucks for a dose of aspirin as an insured hospital patient.
I had (or thought I had) lost the cotton end of a qtip in my ear. Turned out it had come out while I was frantically jumping up and down in the bathroom, only I never saw it. Panic set in and I started to feel pain (probably due to the prodding of my SO + a psychosomatic response).
I went to the hospital, spent 2 hours in the waiting room, then 2 more hours waiting while sitting on a bed. Finally a secretary spend about 10 minutes with me asking me my SS#, maiden name of my mom, address, birth date, basically as much personal info as she could get out of me. Finally the doc took oh, about 30 seconds to check my ear and declared that there was nothing in there.
I got a bill for $750 (IIRC).
That doc must be filthy rich what with a $90,000 hourly rate.
Um, no. That doc, if it was an attending, makes about 150 to 300K per year. If it was a resident, which is quite likely if you were at a teaching hospital, they make about 45K per year, working up to 80 hours a week.
I agree. It’s really annoying when people with very minor problems use up valuable emergency room space rather than seeing their family doctor within a few days.
Why do you only think that you have pay for the doctor’s time? In an ER visit, at the very least you’re also paying for the time of the receptionist, physician’s assistants, nurses. Plus the exam room gets cleaned between each patient, which includes throwing out a number of disposable items to keep everything sterile. Plus they have to pay for the janitorial and maintenance staff and the building and a whole suite of very expensive equipment that just sits there waiting for a chance to save somebody’s life. And they have to pay for this while treating a significant number of patients that cannot pay.
Hospitals are hardly profitable operations. There are excessive costs built into the system, but you can’t blame the ER doctor for all of that bill.
Obviously the doc wasn’t making anywhere near that amount. Please do not insinuate that I’m dumb as a bag of rocks. At least come out and say so plainly.
My post was an observation on the incredibly over priced service I was offered.
As to why not wait until I could see my regular doc, my own insurance company told me that if there was pain I should see someone ASAP or risk damaging my ear.
I’m not a doctor, I’ll take their word for it. Really, between a possibly large bill and my hearing, I’ll choose hearing every time.
My Insurance then declined to pay for my 30 second $750 check up, of course :roll: