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I got a question
Smitty500mag
Member Posts: 13,603 ✭✭✭✭
As most of you all know my wife June passed away recently and her doctor and hospital bills are continuing to roll in.
I've paid most of them off along with the insurance which paid 80% of everything and I've been paying the rest over this past year and a half.
There's one more bill for just under $2,000 they're bugging me about right now and they got me hacked off because they turned it over to a collector without even billing me for it.
I think I'll just not pay it. My name's not on it and they've already made over a million and a half dollars off of her illness between me and the insurance company. She doesn't have an estate and I've been the only provider for her since 1986. So am I liable for that bill?
Comments
Unpaid medical bills are subject to late fees each month. Once the bill goes to collection, you will see interest charges tacked on to your total bill. Make sure to review the bill closely to ensure that you're responsible for all the charges. You claiming that it's not your bill is meaningless to the collector, who will keep hounding you to the point that they might try to sue you or put a lien on your property. This is extreme for $2K, but the collector gets a percentage of the amount recovered, and who can say how hungry they are.
If it's not your bill then contact the collector and clear it up now. The bill won't go away.
Pretty good advice so far. You do have a right to question the bill and ask them what it is for within 30 days. Just make sure you send them a letter and they get it..like certifed, return receipt and sign for it.
If the original provider billed insurance you should have an Explanation of Benefits EOB from the insurance Co. detailing the original charge, adjustment if any, and amount paid if any. Go from there to make sure what you really owe on it. If the charge is warranted and the provider didn't bill you before turning it over to collections that would cause me aggravation as well. Since it is with a collection agency if the charge is warranted I would consider offering them a reduced amount, like 5% and maybe be willing to go to 10%. Get it in writing. The collection agency wants to collect something because that's better than nothing.
Negotiate a reduced amount and offer to pay it off over a 10 year period. Then you're acting in good faith. Tell them you need a written invoice every month and send them back a $1 bill monthly. It will cost them more than just forgiving the amount. 😎
Well I went ahead and paid the damn thing but not without haggling with them first. I got the price knocked down 50%. All they were doing was trying to squeeze what they could out of me and decided that was good enough since my name was not on anything. So now they've made about a million and a half bucks plus a couple hundred.
I was going to let this slide. But now they got my feathers ruffled. Before June died she asked me to sue the doctor that misdiagnosed her as having arthritis instead of cancer. Actually she asked me to promise her.
If they had x-rayed her spine at the time they x-rated her shoulder she may still be alive today. The emergency room doctor didn't even need an x-ray the day I took her in for the extreme pain she was in. He knew right away that it was more than just arthritis. Within a couple of hours we found out that she had stage 4 lung and spine cancer from a CT scan.
There was nearly a year that the cancer was allowed to continue to eat away at her bones before it was discovered.
I called my lawyer today and he informed me that it was damn near impossible to win a lawsuit against a doctor in the state of Georgia. Nevertheless he gave me the number to another lawyer that specializes in this sort of thing and I'm going to see what he's got to say.
I always hated people that sued for just anything but this is more than just anything in my opinion.
If I were to get any money from something like this it would go to the kids. I would never take a penny for anything to do with June's death. I never took out any life insurance on her because every dollar would be a reminder to me. And besides I always figured I would be the one to kick the bucket first and bought insurance on me instead of her.
Looks like it'll never end. Earlier today I got a bill in the mail for a nebulizer that June was having to use for her lungs. They were informed that she had died back in October but they don't have the death certificate that I sent to them already. So they want another one. No big deal but just a big aggravation. Those death certificates cost $5 a piece and I've already sent out a boatload of those things and I told the lady she'll either take a copy or nothing. She said to fax it to her. I told her I got rid of my fax machine right after the dinosaurs died. She finally gave me a email address. What a pain.
Now I've also got a bill from the ambulance company. They charged $1,750 dollars for a 19 mile ride. And now they want me to pay them an extra $295 that the insurance didn't pay.
Good thing I live out in the country instead of in town where tall buildings are today. I might be tempted to take a flight off of one.
Hang in there smitty this to will pass...
As long as you keep paying out they'll keep billing.... you're the type they love.
"Never do wrong to make a friend----or to keep one".....Robert E. Lee
Worse part is that Dr.s and Hospitals send out bogus bills for the same thing and wait and see if the party will pay. Question every bill . Double billing is not unheard of
Have you seen an attorney yet about settling her estate. You may want to do that and take that advice.
Yep, I guess you're right. They've got me at a disadvantage these days. I used to have a lot more fight in me than I do now.
And besides that, to be fair, it's an agreement that I agreed to when I bought the insurance. They would pay 80% and I would pay 20%. Even though the ambulance company is price gouging, the insurance company paid their part and my part is actually a little bit less than 20% by about $55.
I thought it over and if I had wanted the insurance company to pay it all I should have bought that policy but I didn't and to do anything less is like welching on a bet. Even though it's not my bill per se it was June's and everything she had was the same as being mine. She and I were one. I'll just quit complaining from now on and pay my fair share as agreed on.
I have a friend that's a VA doctor and 2 yrs ago he needed a back operation at our local public hospital, the billing clerks didn't know he was a Doctor and as the bills came in and with him knowing all the medical billing codes was flabergasted at all the medicines and junk he was billed sky high prices for and many he never received. He called for a sit down meeting with the billing department to discuss each item line by line, he told them what he received or didn't receive item by item, therapies not received, certain meds, bogus supplies etc. etc. After the meeting they deducted 40% from his bill, he was happy and his private insurance was even happier but he was still pissed they tried to scam him and the insurance company needlessly. That's why most insurance companies fight a lot of these charges......with us the medical community see's a wide open cookie jar with little to no ramifications 😡
"Never do wrong to make a friend----or to keep one".....Robert E. Lee