.32 Renaissance
19 minutes ago
Tuesday, March 19, 2019
Hospital bill
The hospital sent me the bill for my stay there. They even sent a nice return envelope as if I could just write a check and pay it. A lot of people think that if you just send them any money at all they can’t won’t send your bill to collections. That is false. They have to agree on a payment plan that’s acceptable to them first.
With that in mind I gave them a call. It’s funny, when they answer the phone they have a tenseness in their voice as if they are expecting to be yelled at. I really would not want their job. They chilled out once they heard I was not angry.
As soon as I got out of the hospital my lovely wife filled out a bunch of paperwork asking for assistance with the bill. When I told customer service that they made a note on my bill so it would not go into collection. She told me there’s a huge backlog for assistance and it might take a while to get to my bill. That’s fine as far as I’m concerned. If they could put it on hold forever that would be perfect.
Eventually they’ll get around to my account. At that point we’ll see what happens. They may forgive my bill (possible but I’m not holding my breath.) We could come to a mutually satisfactory payment plan. If they don’t want to work with me there’s always the option of going into default. That would hurt my credit rating, but so what?
In other news I am getting better. Saturday I spent the day up and about and had hardly any swelling at all in my legs. That’s progress.
-Sixbears
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Glad you're doing better. My experience is that you can get off with a dime on the dollar for medical bills.
ReplyDeleteSomething will work out. The main thing is to stay healthy.
DeleteGreat to hear of your improvement. And I agree on the hospital bill paying ideas.
ReplyDeleteThanks Bigfoot!
DeleteI handled my bill by rotating the 1) hospital 2) surgeon 3) regular doctor 4) medical lab / specialists. Each paycheck, take a chunk and pay one at a time. I told each of them that it would take some time, but all of them would be paid in full. They were cool with that.
ReplyDeleteI am lucky. House and vehicles are paid for, so no mortgage competing with it. Daily bills don't stop of course and I easily understand how medical costs can sink a family when their finances are already stressed out.
My parents had good insurance, but medical bills still caused them to go bankrupt. Co-pays, travel, and medications did them in.
DeleteGlad to hear you are getting better. Sounds like y'all have things handled. - Momlady
ReplyDeleteThanks Momlady. I've a plan at any rate.
DeleteThe credit rating thing won't hurt unless you found a beautiful sailboat that just screams BUY ME and you're light on cash ;-)
ReplyDeleteIf I have to borrow to buy it, I can't afford it.
DeleteI remember the days when the doctors would make house calls and wouldn't charge a ridicules amount of money. Of course those were the good old days.
ReplyDeleteOf course, that was back when they'd bleed you and use leeches. :)
DeleteI sympathize about the bill. We had some whoppers when my wife had cancer 12 years ago. I'm glad you're getting better.
ReplyDeleteIt's a long road to recover, but at least I'm on it.
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