Annoying Medical Bill

[scbelleatheart]

DS had surgery today on his shoulder for a torn ligament. OK, we have insurance but it's the beginning of the year so the deductibles start all over. They scheduled the surgery at the 1st of the year and we get a call on Saturday (2 days before surgery) telling us we need to pay half of the deductible on Monday, the day of surgery. $1,250.
How many people could come up with that amount with 2 days notice? We've always been billed before and paid the deductible over a few months. We had the money but there were times when we could not come up with that much cash in 2 days. I think that should have been disclosed at the time they scheduled the surgery. I was going to write a check but they wanted an electronic transfer. Called DH and told him to transfer money right away from savings to checking so the EFT would go through.
Thank heavens we were able to do it but how do others manage? I feel for them if the surgery is needed immediately !

 

[Sadie22]

I hope the surgery went according to plan and that your DH will be feeling much better very soon.

It's always best to have the amount of your insurance deductibles (health, auto, and/or homeowners) in an accessible account in case of emergency. It sounds like you did and everything's fine. The hospital likely would have worked out a plan with smaller payments for someone who needed more time. (Half was a payment plan.) At our hospital for scheduled surgeries we register ahead of time and discuss insurance at that time. That's the opportunity to arrange payment of your deductible. They take credit cards.

 

[jmartinez1895]

Thankfully we do not have to pay deductibles on our plan, but our doctor wanted 2 of my kids to have there tonsils out on the same day and they set that up. The day before the surgery ( which had been planned for moths) the hospital called to collect $200 ( $100 co pay each). I new what our coverage was so I already had it set aside.
If the surgery was an emergency ( like appendicitis) then the hospital would bill you if you did not have the money and then you would, in most cases, be able to work out a payment plan with them.

 

[sookie]

Hi op!
If you have access to a flexible spending account - this is a great way to always know you can meet that deductible on january 1st if needed. I have always used up my funds plus some - so we max ours out now!

 

[carebee21]

Although I agree that they should have told you earlier than 2 days out, I also think that sometimes you need to be proactive. We leave extra money in our savings that can be easily transferred into checking in case of an emergency purchase. Whether the emergency be a deductible for health insurance, car accident, home owner's insurance, an emergency flight home due to illness or death (all of our family lives out of state), a broken home appliance or whatever else may come up, the money is there if need be. We learned the hard way when my MIL passed away unexpectedly after I had been black friday shopping all morning and we couldn't make the transfer from our high yield savings account quick enough to buy plane tickets. Thankfully we had an emergency credit card but since then, we keep more money in our plain savings account, just in case.

 

[Patience]

Same thing happened when my daughter had wrist surgery in November. Her surgery was scheduled for a Wednesday and the hospital called on the Monday before the surgery needing us to pay her remaining deductible (a little less than $2000) right then. For other surgeries in our family, including my daughter's hernia surgery when she was 9, we were billed after the surgery. It wasn't a big deal and I paid it right away but I was surprised at the change in policy since the last surgery. I guess everyone wants to be paid up front in this economy.

 

[Eastern]

Hospitals will often ask for your remaining deductible up front, but you can usually negotiate a payment plan. You have to ask, because they would rather get the money up front. They should not charge you any interest.

 

[Bob NC]

I'd pay cash before I'd give them electric transfer authority.

 

[scbelleatheart]

Same thing happened when my daughter had wrist surgery in November. Her surgery was scheduled for a Wednesday and the hospital called on the Monday before the surgery needing us to pay her remaining deductible (a little less than $2000) right then. For other surgeries in our family, including my daughter's hernia surgery when she was 9, we were billed after the surgery. It wasn't a big deal and I paid it right away but I was surprised at the change in policy since the last surgery. I guess everyone wants to be paid up front in this economy.

That's basically what happened to us. DS had a hernia surgery in Nov 2011 and we were billed for our portion. Now in Jan 2011 we had to pay half of the deductible. I assumed the policy changed at the beginning of this year.

If I had $1250 cash I would have paid cash instead of an EFT. Unfortunately, I only had $700 on me at the time.