Has anyone ever had medical bills that are threatening to send to collections?

[adisneyaunt]

OP.. I've been BLESSED to never be in your situation.. (and at one point having close to $500,000, In hospital/dr bills that were completely covered with No out of pocket for us.)
I admire your being Proactive in getting the Best plan going to avoid Collections and want to wish you the very best in that regard along with a Healthy Happy Holiday Season for you/rs!

 

[Capang]

We have had this happen. As long as payments are being made they won't send it to collections unless the time between payments is more than 30 days. We have been lucky in that no interest is added to anything in collections, in fact we never pay the collection agency. We absolutely refuse because their tactics are shady at best and they can never give us a definite answer as to what we are paying. We always pay the hospital directly, even when it is in collections the hospital here will accept payments. We had over 10 grand at one point when my step daughter was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. That took us over 3 years to pay off paying what we could each month. Most recently the hospital decided to put our bills to e-bills without telling us until we got a collections notice. I called the hospital immediately and began making payments and switched us back to paper billing. Our hospital network applies payments to the oldest bills. I have never paid interest on a medical bill and interest has never been added while in collections. Call the hospital each month and resubmit to insurance. Once a deductible has been met they shouldn't charge but they will until it is paid off. So you have to call each month and fight them to resubmit to insurance. Then call your insurance and submit a detailed itemized bill. It will take a ton of time but usually it will take some of the money off the bill.

 

[traces7]

Good Morning - First time poster here. OP - have you spoke to the hospital network about charity care? Here is an example of how our network handles persons with financial obligations that they cannot fully pay: https://www.mainlinehealth.org/about/policies/charity-care.

I hope that this is helpful to you.

Thanks. They did send some information and we made just a little too much to qualify unfortunately.

 

[kymom99]

I'd do their payment plan. If you are a few days late they shouldn't care too much. We had a payment of $110 a month

I will add that our bill was about half of yours. So really the payment they are asking is reasonable.

I would take the agreement offer and then if you get stuck or see yourself coming up short one month, call Saint Vincent DePaul or the Salvation Army. They will help you get over the hump. We went through a bad time financially and I sold gold jewelry, shopped with every coupon I could find and all that. You may already be doing that but if not, look at ways you can come up with the extra money. Cut back your cellphone bill a little, cable, pack lunches. Whatever you have to do to keep current and out of collections.

 

[maxaroni]

Don't really have much to add but hope you can get off the merry-go-round to get this paid. Sadly, it can be a perpetual cycle. The most we can pay per year is nearly $14,000.00, out of pocket. It's $6,850.00 per person. For this, DH has nearly $,000.00 taken out of his check per month, for 3 of us. I can see how it can totally "bankrupt" someone as this is per year. DS23 has had some issues and a trip to the ER 2 weeks ago. He may be headed for surgery, not sure yet. We are scrambling to try and get all of this done this calendar year, so that the insurance doesn't "reset" and he's back to square one. We have been fairly fortunate that we've all been relatively healthy. DH was in the ER last year and we had a $3,000.00 bill for that, which was our portion. We were able to pay that, and feel blessed.
(((HUGS)))

 

[mommy2allyandaveri]

With medical bills things are a little different than something like a credit card. Call them and let them know what is going on. They will offer you a payment plan and tell you an amount per month to pay. This is the part that most people don't know. You can pay anything you want! If they want you to pay $200 a month tell them you will pay $20 a month. After you tell them this that is the end of it. As long as you pay they will not send you to collections. They don't want to send you to collections since they always loose money when that happens.

This is untrue. I work for a very large healthcare organization. If they place you on a payment plan for $200 per month and you miss it or are late, they can and will send the billing to collections. I see it quite frequently. You cannot simply say I can pay $20, they will put you on the minimum they allow.

 

[kevgraub]

Medical bills don't work the same as regular debt. As long as you pay something every billing period, they can't go to collections. The doctor can refuse to see them,but if they are making sone kind of payment every billing period they cannot be sent to collections.

This is not accurate, at least in any state I am aware of. Doctors/hospitals often choose not to send a bill to collections if you are making some sort of payment every billing period, but it is their choice. They certainly can turn a bill over to a collection agency (or just sue you directly) if they want.

 

[maxaroni]

Something else that can happen is that if you are a property owner, a lien can go against it. In my business, we see this day in and day out for medical bills of any sort. Be it hospitals, labs, radiology.

I am wondering if some of the descrepencies, in some peoples situation for collections vs no collections, is state based? I know of people that medical bills have gone to collections and I also know of people that as long as they pay something ($25/month) it is fine. Perhaps, it has to do with the dollar amount?

I know my boss needed to find a different dentist as he owed too much money from his dentist and he refused to treat him anymore.

 

[Govols1997]

Good luck, OP. Just wanted to add to the fact that medical bills do go to collections. My BIL is a scumbag collections harasser. He tells stories all the time about harassing people he only does medical bills.

 

[starry_solo]

Not sure if open enrollment has closed for your medical plan, but if it hasn't, have you looked into how much more a month it would be to decrease the deductible for your plan? Not sure if it would be worth it but if you, your husband, and child are going to the hospital, doctors so often, it might be.

 

[My2CrazyGirls]

Labcorp sent us to collections after only 2 months of not paying a bill (didn't pay because charge amount was wrong...codes were wrong so insurance needed new codes from provider to pay). Labcorp has not been a pleasant company to deal w unfortunately. You are lucky you havent been sent to collections on bills over a year old.

 

[dclpluto]

My son had to get a few stitches when he was in school. The school said they wasn't going to pay for it that his medical should pay for it. My medical said they wasn't going to pay for it that the school should pay for it. So I'm not paying nothing they send it to collections they will call and say we are going to f up your credit and other things. It took the school a while maybe 5 months I think it was and the school finally paid for it.

 

[traces7]

Not sure if open enrollment has closed for your medical plan, but if it hasn't, have you looked into how much more a month it would be to decrease the deductible for your plan? Not sure if it would be worth it but if you, your husband, and child are going to the hospital, doctors so often, it might be.

This is insurance through my work. Our open enrollment is in March and we only have 2 plans available and they both have the same deductibles. So that's not an option for us. We really don't go very often just the last 2 years my DH had 2 emergency situations and surgeries.

Labcorp sent us to collections after only 2 months of not paying a bill (didn't pay because charge amount was wrong...codes were wrong so insurance needed new codes from provider to pay). Labcorp has not been a pleasant company to deal w unfortunately. You are lucky you havent been sent to collections on bills over a year old.

Yeah, it's weird, because I was on a payment plan for the older bills until recently (that balance is down to $918) and I couldn't afford to get on a payment plan for the newer bills. So I was just paying what I could on those. They were letting me do that until recently when all of a sudden we have to be on a payment plan for all our accounts or we can't have a payment plan for any of them. It's very strange, I really don't understand.

 

[traces7]

OP here, so I called them back today, because I'm just so confused on what happened to my original payment plan. And they tell me that the person on Friday did it wrong and the new total payment plan amount for all our bills would be $197.20. There's no way we can afford that! (The guy on Friday extended the old bills to 24 months, when they are supposed to only be for 12 months, the newer bills can go out to 24 months). So, I guess we're going to just let it sit and pay what we can and wait to get sent to collections. I don't know what else to do do. So frustrating!

 

[TwoMisfits]

OP here, so I called them back today, because I'm just so confused on what happened to my original payment plan. And they tell me that the person on Friday did it wrong and the new total payment plan amount for all our bills would be $197.20. There's no way we can afford that! (The guy on Friday extended the old bills to 24 months, when they are supposed to only be for 12 months, the newer bills can go out to 24 months). So, I guess we're going to just let it sit and pay what we can and wait to get sent to collections. I don't know what else to do do. So frustrating!

Is there any way to negotiate some other bills down to cover the buffer til your tax refund can help you pay it off? For example, reduce your cable tv/internet/cell phone/regular phone packages? Or cut back on any possible entertainment expense (like food out, movies, Christmas, etc)?

I would just feel uncomfortable not being able to go to the doctor for routine stuff (strep, flu, infections, etc) and having to pay the extra to urgent care, or worse emergency care...

 

[traces7]

Is there any way to negotiate some other bills down to cover the buffer til your tax refund can help you pay it off? For example, reduce your cable tv/internet/cell phone/regular phone packages? Or cut back on any possible entertainment expense (like food out, movies, Christmas, etc)?

I would just feel uncomfortable not being able to go to the doctor for routine stuff (strep, flu, infections, etc) and having to pay the extra to urgent care, or worse emergency care...

I've thought about dropping cable, that's our only real entertainment. I have a tracfone and pay $29 every 3 months, so that's not too bad, we all have prepaid phones. So far they have not denied us coverage, we've been to the dr a couple times recently, so I think we're ok on that so far. We may end up just doing the medical loan at the bank and just get them paid off. Still trying to decide.

 

[SharonZ]

You might want to seriously consider the loan at the bank. If you have decent credit, and you have just one bill sent to collections, your credit could be significantly impacted. If somewhere down the road you needed a loan, it might be more difficult to get. Unfortunately, it's not always possible to "pay what you can" anymore. A lot of surgery centers ask for your deductible up front, before you can have surgery. At one point, your doctors are only going to see you for emergency purposes. It's like a credit card, if you can't make the minimum payment you are offered, you can't continue to charge, and your account will go to collections.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

It does seem like people's experiences vary with how a payment plan works for them. I know when my mom had knee surgery 6 years ago she did a payment plan but they allowed her then to pay X amount towards the bill. I don't believe they forced her to pay their set minimum and her bill was $10,000 AFTER insurance was accounted for;I do believe she had around $3,000 in the HSA though. Health Insurance was provided through United Health Care. That was 6 years ago so it may have changed.

I know when I went to Urgent Care last year my bill was $108 but I didn't receive a bill until it was 3 days before the due date. Everyone around me was like "don't worry" and while it may have been fine to pay a few days late I had the $ and paid on time just didn't like how I only had a few days to pay it.

OP I honestly might suggest going through right now and reviewing your household expenses. It may not help you get the $97 more a month than you are paying now (from your earlier comment) but it may help for future expenses. Do you eat out at all? Do you buy items like clothing, electronics, etc that you really don't need but just want? Are your utility bills able to be adjusted such as adjusting the thermostat, using less water? I'm not suggesting you are living beyond your means now but everyone every now and then could use a reevaluation of household expenses.

It would also be good to review the specific laws of your state regarding medical debt.

 

[Jewel1310]

First off I'm sorry for your husband's health issues and how this has impacted you. I know you can't change plans until March, but does either plan have an HSA account with it? If so, even if there is no employer funding, you may want to select that. You can invest money in that fund as it is exempt from federal taxes and will give you a cushion.

Also, while I know you said you make a little too much money for the program through the doctor's office, is there any way to show special circumstances or to complete the form and submit it anyway?

If you get more than the first balance in your tax return you could apply all of it to that balance. As that is for only 1 year, the payments on that probably more than $75 of the total payment. That would lower the payment to much closer to what you thought you could afford.

Lastly while I know you don't want to go into debt with the credit card, if worse comes to worse, 5% is fairly low as long as there is no escalation of interest over time etc. You could then apply extra money to the account as needed and with your tax return.

Sending good thoughts for better health in 2017!

 

[Gracie09]

Any chance you would qualify for a 0 interest credit card? We used a few to float some legal expenses we had.
We actually just got sent to collections due to a hospital billing error. They did not change our address even though I corrected it on the paperwork, told them about it and gave them my license. It was a $60 bill. And now we are dealing with having to send letter to the hospital to remove it from our credit report.