Medical Bills Question

PatsFan1283 · Jul 11, 2011

Friend of mine was on vacation in CA and at a party with friends. He got hit over the head with a bottle after a drunken fight brokeout. Needed like 10 stitches but the ambulance was 2k and med bill was 4300. He didn't have insurance at the time so its his bill to pay. They took 2k off already to get to 4300 but I guess they said they gave him a form to fillout if he had problems with it when he left the hospital but then said he didn't meet the deadline.

Anyone know what he can do? I'd guess if he called and said I'll give you 2500 for the 4300 that they would take it rather than it go to collections but I dunno.

Baccy seems like he would know a lot about this stuff but anyone else can jump in too.

SoonerNation · Jul 11, 2011

most public hospitals are required to take any regular payments. He can tell them he'll give them $50 a month til its paid off and a public hospital must accept it....Id contact them and tell them im offering 50/month but if they cut the bill down ill give them 100 or 150 month...they wont go to collection as long as payments are made regularly.

wabashwonders · Jul 11, 2011

Id get a lawyer and go after the guy who hit him over the head and make him pay the bill...

PatsFanatic · Jul 11, 2011

SoonerNation said:
most public hospitals are required to take any regular payments. He can tell them he'll give them $50 a month til its paid off and a public hospital must accept it....Id contact them and tell them im offering 50/month but if they cut the bill down ill give them 100 or 150 month...they wont go to collection as long as payments are made regularly.

This

Many years ago my Wife cut her finger bad on a glass, down to the tendon, needed surgery and PT. She was uninsured at the time as well and the specialist that did all the work had her pay $50 per month until it was paid, right around $2000.

When she was like $500 away from being fully paid off, he forgave the rest of the payments.

He will probably need to go down this road. I hear what the guy is saying about finding out who hit him, but in all reality that probably isn't going to happen, especially since it sounds like he was in a place he probably didn't know many people and was the "outsider".

DollarDay · Jul 11, 2011

Hey guys .... I don't do a lot of medical work, so I can't tell you with 100% confidence, however many times the balances can be negotiated down.

Just think of, and approach it, this way. Say you have "Blue Cross / Blue Shield" (insert brand of insurance here). ALL of those insurance plans have "negotiated" rates with the doctors & hospitals .... think the "retail" price of having 10 stitches done is $2500, however because the insurance company does a ton of business with the hospital, they "negotiate" a rate of $1500 for the stitches. They then pay their part of the negotiated price and you are responsible for your co-pay.

Well, in many cases these doctor offices will accept a negotiated price and you won't have to pay full retail. The lowest "negotiated" price out there is for Medicaid. You don't want to go after the doctor's office to go that low, but find out what a reasonable insurance negotiated price would be and agree to pay that.

As for payments over time, yup, many not-for-profit hospitals have a ton of stipulations about what the can, and can't do, regarding pursuing the debt. Just about all of them will take payments over time.

The question then becomes is it better to make $50 payments over time on a "retail" price or is it better to make a 1-time lump sum payment at the "negotiated" price, or is the hospital willing to take payments on the negotiated price - get the best of both worlds.

The bottom line is having open communication with the creditor. Realizing that you didn't "ask" for credit (ie you didn't want to get hurt), you are none-the-less responsible for it. Willie can give you some tax advice but depending on how high a % of your AGI the balance is, you may be able to get a tax write-off on the amount you pay.

Feel free to PM me if you have any other questions - but like I said above, my work is more in the credit card and auto deficiency arena. Good luck with it.

PatsFan1283 · Jul 11, 2011

baccy said:
Hey guys .... I don't do a lot of medical work, so I can't tell you with 100% confidence, however many times the balances can be negotiated down.

Just think of, and approach it, this way. Say you have "Blue Cross / Blue Shield" (insert brand of insurance here). ALL of those insurance plans have "negotiated" rates with the doctors & hospitals .... think the "retail" price of having 10 stitches done is $2500, however because the insurance company does a ton of business with the hospital, they "negotiate" a rate of $1500 for the stitches. They then pay their part of the negotiated price and you are responsible for your co-pay.

Well, in many cases these doctor offices will accept a negotiated price and you won't have to pay full retail. The lowest "negotiated" price out there is for Medicaid. You don't want to go after the doctor's office to go that low, but find out what a reasonable insurance negotiated price would be and agree to pay that.

As for payments over time, yup, many not-for-profit hospitals have a ton of stipulations about what the can, and can't do, regarding pursuing the debt. Just about all of them will take payments over time.

The question then becomes is it better to make $50 payments over time on a "retail" price or is it better to make a 1-time lump sum payment at the "negotiated" price, or is the hospital willing to take payments on the negotiated price - get the best of both worlds.

The bottom line is having open communication with the creditor. Realizing that you didn't "ask" for credit (ie you didn't want to get hurt), you are none-the-less responsible for it. Willie can give you some tax advice but depending on how high a % of your AGI the balance is, you may be able to get a tax write-off on the amount you pay.

Feel free to PM me if you have any other questions - but like I said above, my work is more in the credit card and auto deficiency arena. Good luck with it.

They already took 2k off of him for not having insurance and it being cash instead (called a self-pay discount)

As far as the payment plan goes, I think they charge an interest rate for that now so its not exactly 0% payments.

Thanks for the advice though, I'll let him know.