# Would you pay this bill? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [November 10, 2010, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-pay-this-bill/560227 "2010-11-10T21:19:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![muldoonthief](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muldoonthief/32/3188_2.png) [@muldoonthief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/muldoonthief)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2010, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-pay-this-bill/560227/41 "2010-11-12T16:42:52Z")
> [@luv2draw](#): > > I wouldn’t pay the bill. Once my doctor billed me for services after over a year they were performed. My insurance company wouldn’t pay the doctor because the charges were over a year old; otherwise they would have since they were legitimate fees that my insurance covered. > > If the insurance company wouldn’t pay, my feeling is that I shouldn’t have to either. My doctor needed some serious reorganization of his billing dept. That’s his faulty, not mine. I had a similar situation once - I got a bill from a hospital (for labs) nearly 3 years after the service. It turned out they had submitted it to the old insurance co, and then when they rejected it, sent a bill to my old address. When they found my correct address, it was far too late to submit it to the insurance co. that would have covered it at the time in question (since my employer had changed insurance since then). When I pointed this out to them, and pointed out that they did have my correct address for everyone else in the family who had labs go through them at the time in question, they wrote it off. I wouldn’t have paid it regardless though - they’ve got some responsibility to keep their own house in order enough to get bills out in a timely fashion. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2010, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-pay-this-bill/560227/42 "2010-11-12T19:55:27Z")
> [@Northern\_Piper](#): > > If I was satisfied the bill was legit, I would pay it - not because of legal obligations, but because it would be a duty I owed to Mrs Piper - tidying up after her, just as she would for me. Well said; I would feel the same way about bills for my husband. We’re a unit; his money is my money, my bills are his bills, etc. ---
**Author:** ![Blisters](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/50afbb/32.png) [@Blisters](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blisters)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2010, 7:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-pay-this-bill/560227/43 "2010-11-13T07:41:27Z")
I realize that I asked a stupid question upthread. Thank you for the gentle explanations-I do not want to be BBQ’ed for a stupid question. ---
**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2010, 8:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-pay-this-bill/560227/44 "2010-11-13T08:05:16Z")
> [@Quartz](#): > > To all those advocating flat out not paying, what’s going to happen when the OP needs the services of this doctor if she doesn’t pay? > > IMHO if the bill is legitimate, then she should pay if she verifies it and she can. Her husband was the one that contracted for & received services, not her. She doesn’t owe them a single penny. There are laws & procedures in place for collecting debts against a dead person’s estates. They chose to ignore them. Or they were ignorant of them which is pretty stupid considering the nature of their business. Their stupidy or laziness is not her concern. ---
**Author:** ![luv2draw](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/46a35a/32.png) [@luv2draw](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/luv2draw)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2010, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-pay-this-bill/560227/45 "2010-11-14T00:35:40Z")
> [@Quartz](#): > > To all those advocating flat out not paying, what’s going to happen when the OP needs the services of this doctor if she doesn’t pay? > > IMHO if the bill is legitimate, then she should pay if she verifies it and she can. I posted elsewhere in this thread that I didn’t pay a doctor’s bill because it was submitted by the doc’s office to my insurance company way after a year after the service performed. The insurance company wouldn’t pay after that time. I sent the copy of the explanation from the insurance company to the doc’s office. It’s years later and he’s still my regular doc. No problem. Several years ago I also had a biopsy done at the local hospital. Even after insurance was paid I owed them $600+. No way I could pay them at once so I called and told them I could pay $20/mo. After about a year I get a letter returning my latest check and saying that my bill is paid in full. Guess they couldn’t be bothered with keeping track of me anymore. It’s the local hospital. If I have to go there for something, I won’t give it a second thought. In both cases, that’s the cost of doing business and they write it off. No guilt here. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-pay-this-bill/560227.md?page=2)