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Have you paid off your medical bills?
Hospitals are under pressure because of the number of patients that owe money.
The reasons patient owe money could be two fold: one, they don't have insurance but required medical treatment; or two, they have a copayment but not enough cash.
Hospitals work out a medical payment program. A person can each up paying numerous medical bills per month and zap all their income. Medical bills often drive individuals into bankruptcy.
What has been your experience dealing with medical bills?
The reasons patient owe money could be two fold: one, they don't have insurance but required medical treatment; or two, they have a copayment but not enough cash.
Hospitals work out a medical payment program. A person can each up paying numerous medical bills per month and zap all their income. Medical bills often drive individuals into bankruptcy.
What has been your experience dealing with medical bills?
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| April 28, 2009 02:41 PM |
For other medical bills, I pay them as they come. We have an emergency fund, so we pay any unexpected bills out of there. You have to stay on the providers and the insurers, though. Their paperwork isn't so hot. I've had to call more than once to remind them that I'd paid before they cleared the bill. Other times, I've had to fight to get my insurance company to pay up. So far, I've always gotten it right with phone calls.
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• Unsecure debt is another person problem. The hospital gets paid, so it not their problem. If you default then the bank carries the burden of the default. Shareholder are disappointed when banks don't hit their expected earnings and stock prices drop.
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April 28, 2009 01:50 PM
I had a seizure when I was little (around 3 or 4) and spent the night in the hospital. They ran all kinds of tests, did a spinal tap, and they never figured out what caused it. But a few years ago my family finally finished paying off the bill after 12! I don't know how much we paid a month, but a one night stay in the hospital and a few tests add up to more than the average family can reasonably pay without going into bankruptcy.
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April 28, 2009 03:02 PM
Most insurance have a max out of pocket limit. I pay about 200 dollars a month for Afliac surgical and emergency supplimentary insurance too cover out of pocket expenses.
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April 28, 2009 03:32 PM
It sounds like you weren't covered by your parent's insurance. Which is a huge mistake.
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April 28, 2009 02:04 PM
Ugh. Two years ago I had a run-in with the emergency room.
Went in with massive chest pains (I felt like I was in a vise) and x-rays, EKGs, and TYLENOL cost my insurance company about $4,000. I ended up having to pay about $1,700 out of pocket. Thankfully, my insurance has an out of pocket cap. Once I hit $1,000, I only had to pay 10% of the rest of my bills.
Thank god.
We got it paid off fairly quickly. Yay for us.
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April 28, 2009 03:30 PM
Well, it was very annoying that I had to pay three different doctors even though I was only seen by one.
Apparently, I had to pay for specialists to check my EKG and X-ray after the ER doc saw me. Both the EKG and the X-ray was done by a nurse, so he was paid by the hospital, but I still had to shell out money to two other doctors that never stepped foot in my room? Regular ER doc was able to read my results just fine, but I still had to pay people I never met who supposedly had a hand in my care.
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Apparently, I had to pay for specialists to check my EKG and X-ray after the ER doc saw me. Both the EKG and the X-ray was done by a nurse, so he was paid by the hospital, but I still had to shell out money to two other doctors that never stepped foot in my room? Regular ER doc was able to read my results just fine, but I still had to pay people I never met who supposedly had a hand in my care.
April 28, 2009 06:28 PM
Fragmented Medical billing gobbles up money quick. The medical industry looks like a series of sub contractors. You go through the main portal called a hospital but are billed by each sub contractor separately.
Insurance bill coding is equally as complicated. You don't get an estimated cost up front. Instead, your bill separated for each procedure dependant on the required sub contracting linked to their speciality.
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Insurance bill coding is equally as complicated. You don't get an estimated cost up front. Instead, your bill separated for each procedure dependant on the required sub contracting linked to their speciality.
April 28, 2009 02:58 PM
I'm lucky enough to have insurance so I or my family don't have any medical debts. But we also have been fortunate enough to have never had emergencies or accidents that will make our insurance run out. We've had a couple of hospitalizations but nothing major. I really think the way medicine works in the US is unfortunate. I don't see why you would have to go bankrupt to save your own life when we should all have a right to healthcare. The state really needs to do something.
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April 28, 2009 03:13 PM
I agree something should be done. I am uninsurable outside of the workplace because of pre-existing conditions. It's very frustrating to have to use COBRA any time we have a gap in work. Maybe HSA's are the answer, like 104k's were the answer to the pension problems.
Unfortunately, socialized medicine leads to rationing and substandard care. From what I know of my relatives in Australia, under socialized medicine I could have never had a major surgery schedule a week after a problem was found like I did in the U.S. Because I pay for it, the doctors do it. If the state pays for it, the doctors are accountable to the state first. If the state doesn't approve the expense, then oh well.
My uncle says that in Australia, if you get cancer, they give you one good shot, and then if it fails, they keep you comfortable. It's not worth public money to keep trying. When we pay for our own care, we can decide what is worth it.
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Unfortunately, socialized medicine leads to rationing and substandard care. From what I know of my relatives in Australia, under socialized medicine I could have never had a major surgery schedule a week after a problem was found like I did in the U.S. Because I pay for it, the doctors do it. If the state pays for it, the doctors are accountable to the state first. If the state doesn't approve the expense, then oh well.
My uncle says that in Australia, if you get cancer, they give you one good shot, and then if it fails, they keep you comfortable. It's not worth public money to keep trying. When we pay for our own care, we can decide what is worth it.
April 28, 2009 03:14 PM
It's up there in the priorities but right now I think the economy is #1.
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April 28, 2009 03:15 PM
@srgothard You have a good point. Ideally we could devise a solution that ensures reasonable healthcare for all while upholding the high standard of care of US medicine. Because while it's not available to anyone it's still the best in the world.
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April 28, 2009 06:35 PM
People who contract labor must buy insurance as a LLC or Sole prioritorship. The Health insurance does not discontinue unless they stop making payments.
Health insurance is used as a benefit to retain employees. Employees have become dependant on the coverage. Insurance premiums are supplimented by the company.
However, suppose that the company did not pay any contribution. Employees would cover the cost of the insurance paying 600 dollars a month verse 300 dollars.
I buy Afliac because the insurance out of pocket is high and because of the noncoverage items associated with surgery. The supplimentary insurance drives up the cost. Afliac does not terminate with my employment.
It is surprise how many employees do not have insurance. Any surgical procedure must be moved to some form of unsecure debt.
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Health insurance is used as a benefit to retain employees. Employees have become dependant on the coverage. Insurance premiums are supplimented by the company.
However, suppose that the company did not pay any contribution. Employees would cover the cost of the insurance paying 600 dollars a month verse 300 dollars.
I buy Afliac because the insurance out of pocket is high and because of the noncoverage items associated with surgery. The supplimentary insurance drives up the cost. Afliac does not terminate with my employment.
It is surprise how many employees do not have insurance. Any surgical procedure must be moved to some form of unsecure debt.
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Does your medical bill have an interest attached?
What is the risk of a collection agency taking over the bill collection?
Medical bills don't have interest rates, as long as you pay them SOMETHING, they can't send you to collections. You can pay them $50 a month for the rest of your life and they can't do a thing.
But now you have to pay $4,000 at 24% interest? Bad idea. NEVER EVER let them do that to you again.
50k income with a million dollars in medical expenses does not seem feasible. What do you think?
As for caps on costs, who pays the difference? You can't just say, "That $100k procedure now costs $20k." That money has to come from somewhere. Should the attending nurses be notified, "When you tend patient X, you will receive $1/hour instead of your usual $20/hour"? What nurse would attend patient X? Do we tell the equipment provider, "We're going to give you only $10 for this $200 medical device"? I'm guessing their devices would cost $300 in the future to compensate for their loss. If instead we had charity hospitals to which nurses, doctors, and medical providers could donate their time and equipment, I'm sure many would be glad to. But forcing someone to help the poor is demotivating and a little insulting.
You can't make life fair. I have my medical problems that are not genetic and not caused by lifestyle. I can't make everyone go through the pain I've gone through in order to be fair. It's just how it is. And I can't expect you to pay for my surgeries just because it's not my fault I'm sick. That's even less fair. I have a vested interest in being treated, and I will pay for it. People who treat the sick deserve to be paid, and if they wish to donate their time, that must be their choices, not yours.
The medical industry have competition that can drive costs down. People live longer as a result of better medical technology but carry heavy medical bills for many years.