Wife had emergency surgery

[alex&jaqui 0]

Hello VJ, My wife came to the US with a K1 visa. She is now awaiting adjustment status. She had to have emergency surgery for her appendix last week. Since she does not have any health insurance, the hospital wants me to fill out paperwork to see if we are eligible for any type of financial assistance to help pay the hospital bill. Will this affect her status or will the sponsor(my mom) be liable for any bills??

[del-2-5-2014 1,339]

I would think that this is going to be bad if it's a governmental assistance.

[jamdown22 5]

yes u have to try and work out a payment plan with the hospital u do not want to have that record of getting medicaid help

[Ryan H 3,812]

Moved from K1 Process & Procedures to Moving Here & Your New Life In America forum; topic is unrelated to the visa process and the AOS process.

[Cathi 5,760]

You can make a payment plan with the hospital. A lot of hospitals will adjust what you have to pay back based on your income. Good luck.

[bt1 42]

Hello VJ, My wife came to the US with a K1 visa. She is now awaiting adjustment status. She had to have emergency surgery for her appendix last week. Since she does not have any health insurance, the hospital wants me to fill out paperwork to see if we are eligible for any type of financial assistance to help pay the hospital bill. Will this affect her status or will the sponsor(my mom) be liable for any bills??

My understanding is that your wife is not eligible for any kind of government assistance, but, you can work with the hospital to have monthly payments to cover the expenses.

[rlogan 2,036]

Hello VJ, My wife came to the US with a K1 visa. She is now awaiting adjustment status. She had to have emergency surgery for her appendix last week. Since she does not have any health insurance, the hospital wants me to fill out paperwork to see if we are eligible for any type of financial assistance to help pay the hospital bill. Will this affect her status or will the sponsor(my mom) be liable for any bills??

Sponsorship is a real committment, not just a line on a form to get through immigration. A lot of times when the sponsor is called upon to fulfill the committment, there is a desperate scramble to do something besides fulfill the committment.

As a practical matter, you need to discuss this with the business office of the hospital. They see this all the time. She probably is not eligible for medicaid, but there is a less well-known fact about medicaid: they not only make payment for individuals who cannot cover their hospital bills - but they also make a lump-sum transfer to hospitals that don't have their bills covered. So it is a back-door way to get medicaid funding to people that do not qualify for medicaid: the hospital forgives their bills either voluntarily or through bankruptcy default, and medicaid covers the gap at the end of the year for the total of such cases.

[Kajikit 65]

You can fill out all the paperwork you like, but I expect their short answer to be 'no, she's not eligible for any assistance from the government with her current immigration status, so please pay us X amount of dollars for her care.' I hope she's okay, but somebody's going to get the bill.

[Peter_Pan 661]

Does she not qualify for emergency medicaid, which is not considered governmental assistance?

[rocks 494]

Does she not qualify for emergency medicaid, which is not considered governmental assistance?

That's what I was wondering? I think they should apply for it and see what the outcome is. For AOS, emergency medicaid is not classed as a public charge. If you search USCIS for "public charge" you should be able to find the information.

[james&olya 1,121]

You will be WAY ahead if you only have to reimburse the government for what they expend through medicaid as opposed to what the hospital actually charges 'private pay' patients! There is a HUGE discount that medicaid takes. They only pay 'cents-on-the-dollar' for what is billed. Most hospitals lose money big-time on their medicaid patients. It is so bad they actually had to pass a law (EMTALA, the emergency treatment and active labor act) to require hospitals to examine everyone that presents and provide any necessary emergency care regardless of ability to pay to prevent patient 'dumping'.

So even if you have to reimburse the government for the medicaid payments, it will be far, far less than what you would eventually pay the hospital in any payment plan! And you may not have to pay anything back!

Edited June 24, 2012 by james&olya

[Stuart and Thea 95]

I'm busy researching all the healthcare stuff, what with the news and all, and found this that shows she can get emergency medicaid! My link

I don't have insurance right now, and am trying to save money for an emergency, so this helps to know we have access!