Medical bills and deportation threat.

[Avery Cates 1,141]

It was after we got married.

Did they take any of your husband's information?

I really hope that is true.

Did you give them a Social Security number for yourself?

[kzielu 1,154]

Correct me if I am wrong but if the company doesn't have a SSN to report the debt against isn't it pointless them trying to chase? I possibly think they don't have any ability to escalate it any further and that's why they are trying so hard to get the money?

Not true. My wife made me authorized user of her credit card few years ago and it ended up on my credit report without ever providing them SSN.

[AKSinghSingh79 143]

A few things come to mind - your USC half should have realized that hospitals are expensive, but else than that, report them as CaryH suggested, then:

- Contact the patient ombudsman (maybe known as patient care or relations) at the hospital you were at, explain the situation and explain exactly what you've said here

- Contact the joint commission if the ombudsman is not able to solve your problems http://www.jointcommission.org They take these things very seriously and will possibly audit the hospital over it

- If all else fails and you don't want to argue the case in court, you can make small payments each month on the bill. They must accept them.

Agreed with what N-o-l-a said.

As long as you make payments, they cannot say anything. You can make the payments in an increment of your choice that you can afford (i.e. $25). I've made as little as $10 to outstanding hospital bills. Sometimes I get angry calls from them demanding more but I am firm with them and say "Hey you'll get what I can afford." They can be nasty horrible people. I had one woman calling me once saying "I bet you live paycheck to paycheck, don't you?" I told her it's none of her business again you will get what I give you.

As long as you are making some payment, it should not negatively impact your credit score.

I am very sorry for what you have had to deal with.I hope that woman gets fired for making false threats against you.

[kehills 217]

Lizzyfjt: a couple of things. First, do you know if the hospital you went to was a religious hospital? Find that out, first. Catholic hospitals in the United States will largely not perform abortions, often not even in the case of saving the mother's life, and you could have a specific sort of lawsuit on hand if they allowed their religious beliefs to threaten your health/life. It is also worth it to consult with a malpractice attorney (regardless of the affiliation of the hospital), because what you describe shouldn't have happened (in several different ways).

Second, it's very possible that they meant that the services would come down to $150 after you negotiated with billing, being someone without insurance. As a couple of people have noted, most hospitals have a fund that allows people without insurance to pay an equivalent amount to what insurance would actually pay (versus be charged) for procedures, etc. It sounds like the person you talked to in billing was incompetent, though. :/ Just be careful with the collections agency; don't pay anything until you have an agreement in writing!

Good luck.

[Gosia & Tito 199]

We got nothing in writing, which really sucks. I wish we had.

It was after we got married.

It was a University Health System hospital. We purposely went to the ExpressMed Clinic across the street in case they referred me to a hospital, because we had heard it was cheap. OBVIOUSLY NOT!

In that case, I still say that yo want to check with a lawyer, at least an initial consultation to understand exaxctly where you are. IANAL-I am not a lawyer and while I believe collection entities are bottom feeders, most often thay are setup and operate within an attorney umbrella.

You want to ensure your rights and husband's are protected.

At same time, I wouldn't be talking to a collection agency, as I said before, they are getting info from you, they have very limited avenues to determine what if any assets they can get from you. If you tell them, casually during a conversation about them helping you re-pay, you are getting them ammunition.

Change your number if you can, make it harder for them to find you. I'm not advocating to not pay, just to do so in your terms (which you have clearly define). ANything you get agreement on, must be in writing, no matter what it is said or promise; unless it is in writing, it's just words up in the air.

Some had suggested talking to the hospital billing people. I'd say follow that and propose exactly what you said. But, get it in writing.

While this does not affect your immigration status, it can become more than just annoying.

Check you state laws, about consumer rights and proceed. having bad credit is something you want to avoid as much as posible, it's the basis for so many things these days: how much you are going to pay for car insurance, jobs, even renting an apartment, etc.

[lizzy33 2]

Did they take any of your husband's information?

Did you give them a Social Security number for yourself?

The guy from the collection agency called about just one of the bills as that was the only one the hospital had given him to follow up on. I gave him my husband's routing number to pay the $150 that I had agreed to pay for that bill. He told me to write a letter explaining why I was only paying that amount and that I was disputing it with the hospital

Agreed with what N-o-l-a said.

As long as you make payments, they cannot say anything. You can make the payments in an increment of your choice that you can afford (i.e. $25). I've made as little as $10 to outstanding hospital bills. Sometimes I get angry calls from them demanding more but I am firm with them and say "Hey you'll get what I can afford." They can be nasty horrible people. I had one woman calling me once saying "I bet you live paycheck to paycheck, don't you?" I told her it's none of her business again you will get what I give you.

As long as you are making some payment, it should not negatively impact your credit score.

I am very sorry for what you have had to deal with.I hope that woman gets fired for making false threats against you.

Thank you.

We are willing to pay the $150 for each bill up front without any kind of monthly payments, but we're not going to do that until they agree that it will be enough.

Lizzyfjt: a couple of things. First, do you know if the hospital you went to was a religious hospital? Find that out, first. Catholic hospitals in the United States will largely not perform abortions, often not even in the case of saving the mother's life, and you could have a specific sort of lawsuit on hand if they allowed their religious beliefs to threaten your health/life. It is also worth it to consult with a malpractice attorney (regardless of the affiliation of the hospital), because what you describe shouldn't have happened (in several different ways).

Second, it's very possible that they meant that the services would come down to $150 after you negotiated with billing, being someone without insurance. As a couple of people have noted, most hospitals have a fund that allows people without insurance to pay an equivalent amount to what insurance would actually pay (versus be charged) for procedures, etc. It sounds like the person you talked to in billing was incompetent, though. :/ Just be careful with the collections agency; don't pay anything until you have an agreement in writing!

Good luck.

It's not a religious hospital. I told them repeatedly that I don't have an SSN yet, can't take any government aid etc. and they gave me papers for a company called 'Cardon' which helps people pay for their medical bills, but when I spoke to Cardon they told me that it was a government run program so they couldn't help me.

In that case, I still say that yo want to check with a lawyer, at least an initial consultation to understand exaxctly where you are. IANAL-I am not a lawyer and while I believe collection entities are bottom feeders, most often thay are setup and operate within an attorney umbrella.

You want to ensure your rights and husband's are protected.

At same time, I wouldn't be talking to a collection agency, as I said before, they are getting info from you, they have very limited avenues to determine what if any assets they can get from you. If you tell them, casually during a conversation about them helping you re-pay, you are getting them ammunition.

Change your number if you can, make it harder for them to find you. I'm not advocating to not pay, just to do so in your terms (which you have clearly define). ANything you get agreement on, must be in writing, no matter what it is said or promise; unless it is in writing, it's just words up in the air.

Some had suggested talking to the hospital billing people. I'd say follow that and propose exactly what you said. But, get it in writing.

While this does not affect your immigration status, it can become more than just annoying.

Check you state laws, about consumer rights and proceed. having bad credit is something you want to avoid as much as posible, it's the basis for so many things these days: how much you are going to pay for car insurance, jobs, even renting an apartment, etc.

I've emailed a complaint with ALL of the details to the Texas Health Department services, so if they can't do anything for me I'll get back in touch with the hospital billing department. I wish there was an app for our phone so that I could record these damn calls..

[MnMJourney 28]

We got nothing in writing, which really sucks. I wish we had.

It was after we got married.

It was a University Health System hospital. We purposely went to the ExpressMed Clinic across the street in case they referred me to a hospital, because we had heard it was cheap. OBVIOUSLY NOT!

Sorry to hear about your health situation, and sorry to hear that it is complicated by all of this. Actually your situation makes me quite angry. I'm angry as your rep Gloria is simply trying to take advantage of the fact that you let her know you're an immigrant. She assumes that since you are new to this country,unaware of the law, and that she can take advantage of you by making false threats. As everyone mentioned, they are just empty threats since she has no recourse of collecting. But it amounts to harassment, and I'd follow up in writing by contacting the proper channels.

A couple things I noted about your case:

- regarding the $100-150 quote, medical quotes are hard to defend as institutions claim that the person giving you the quote, most likely a receptionist, is untrained with medical procedures. The medical provider, i.e. the doctor administers the care, and then charges for all services provided. So your argument that you were quoted $150 and billed $900 and therefore you don't have to pay would be hard to defend. Quotes are just quotes and can change, just like a quote from an auto mechanic can change once he's under the hood. The proper way to do this would be to examine your itemized charges and dispute anything that you were not made aware off. I am assuming you bills came up to $900 due to numerous tests/procedures ran. The $100-150 quote may be for a doctors visit only. Regardless, you can make a fair case if you were not informed of the tests they were running nor did you give your consent. You may also dispute the medical necessity of the tests conducted. Someone on the forum mentioned that you need to pay since you owe them. That is simply silly! And I get angry and such statements. Hospitals are sometimes notorious in charging for procedures that you did not ask for or sometimes not necessary, so always look at your itemized bill and follow up. Just because something was done, doesn't mean you must pay for it.

- The hospital has no recourse of collecting the debt besides asking or even begging you to pay. After 90 days they usually report it to credit bureaus and sell it off to a collection agency. You need to send them a written notice that you are disputing the bills and that if they report to credit bureaus that they must report the debt as disputed. Make sure you use registered/certified mail when writing to them so you have a record. If they do not follow up on the dispute, you can take the communication chain and contact the BBB to follow up. And then finally take the chain to the credit bureaus to have the debt removed.

- you may soon receive calls from debt collectors for the debt if hospital passes it on, which they likely will. Once you receive those, inform the debt collector that pursuant to Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, you do not wish to be called and that contact with you must be done in writing. They must comply with this, and any further calls may be considered as harassment. Make sure to get as many details as you can from the collector, time, agent IDs, etc. and keep good records. Keep better records of calls made to you after this, as you can sure for those.

Overall, from my reading of your posts, this may be one of malpractice. It seems you believe you were not given the proper treatment that you requested and that you deserved. You went and got a second opinion, which agreed with your initial thoughts. So at this point, I'd go on the defensive. Contact a Med Mal lawyer and discuss your options. Most will take the case on a contingency basis if there is money in it and a probability of wrong doing. Given the fact that you suffered not only physically, but also mental anguish and on top of that were harassed, I think you should have great options and there would be a lineup of lawyers just waiting to take your case. You should also be compensated for having to undergo a surgical procedure, when a medical procedure could have been done if care was administered properly.

Besides all of that - please keep in mind that none of this should affect your immigration status. Even if the hospital decided to sue you, it would be a civil matter, so not affecting your AOS. And I don't believe that the hospital would take it that far, nor would the have the right to.

Again, sorry to hear about your unfortunate situation. I wish you all the best in resolving the issues through the proper channels. I hope you have a speedy resolution on these issues and also you AOS. But most importantly, I hope you recover soon and are not put through further suffering.

Cheers!

[atma 0]

$150 sounds like a deductible on an emergency room visit.Hospitals can be sneaky anyways.A couple of years ago I was doing a physical with my doctor so he refers me to get an ekg done which is normal for my age.Anyways the ekg center was at a hospital so I called to schedule an appointment.Would you believe they wanted to me to pay $150 which was the emergency room visit on my insurance at the time.They were asking me for credit card info and stuf.So I say to the person this is a referral not an emergency and I am not paying anything now but I will be there in person the foloowing day and am ready to talk to someone in billing and I hung up.I got there the next day and they were well aware of me coming.The person at the desk in the hospital told me it was totally covered by my insurance.So they were adamant to charge me a fee that I would not have been responsible for.Later on I had major surgery and you would not believe how many times they tried to double bill my insurance.When I looked at my insurance statement more than half the payments to the hospital was denied by my insurance co.The reason was double biling and my insurance comapny showed wherey double billed.The can be so sneaky sometimes.

[MnMJourney 28]

The guy from the collection agency called about just one of the bills as that was the only one the hospital had given him to follow up on. I gave him my husband's routing number to pay the $150 that I had agreed to pay for that bill. He told me to write a letter explaining why I was only paying that amount and that I was disputing it with the hospital

Thank you.

We are willing to pay the $150 for each bill up front without any kind of monthly payments, but we're not going to do that until they agree that it will be enough.

It's not a religious hospital. I told them repeatedly that I don't have an SSN yet, can't take any government aid etc. and they gave me papers for a company called 'Cardon' which helps people pay for their medical bills, but when I spoke to Cardon they told me that it was a government run program so they couldn't help me.

I've emailed a complaint with ALL of the details to the Texas Health Department services, so if they can't do anything for me I'll get back in touch with the hospital billing department. I wish there was an app for our phone so that I could record these damn calls..

I just read the above post, as I wrote my last one.

I would have done things differently than you mentioned above:

- I would have never paid the debt collector $150. Monies paid the the debt collector does not make it all back to the hospital. They get a portion of it. The debt collector will continue to claim the remaining portion of the debt, and has a legal right to. If you wanted to pay $150 for your visits, I would have paid it directly to the hospital and let them send the remaining portion to collections. You could then dispute the entirety of that collection and not had to deal with collectors at all.

- I would never give my routing number to a debt collector- it may be my paranoia, but its a no no for me. Now they know where they can pull money from. Yes, you can contact your bank and get it back, but its just a hassle I would rather not deal with. I'd pay them with a credit card. That way you have another intermediary between you. And with a credit card, when you dispute a charge, you don't owe it while the investigation is underway.

- someone mentioned that as long as you pay something, it cannot affect your credit score. This is not true. Unless you agree with the hospital to a payment plan, then can say the debt is delinquent. If you'd like to that, most hospitals would work our a payment plan - but only based on financial hardship. You'd have to provide a income, etc. to get on a payment plan. In your case, I'd also refrain from doing so.

Finally, since you don't have a SSN yet, I wouldn't worry about a bad credit score. You don't have one established yet. I'd keep following up and get things resolved with your disputes before paying a single dime. If you wanted to pay $150, I'd make sure that would make a difference, if not I wouldn't pay till resolved. Personally, at this moment, I'd be contacting a good Med Mal lawyer to see what damages you can claim. These are simply my opinions and what I would do if I were in your shoes. You are obviously free to pursue your own plan of action. And I do wish you all the best in the path you chose!

Cheers!

[lizzy33 2]

Sorry to hear about your health situation, and sorry to hear that it is complicated by all of this. Actually your situation makes me quite angry. I'm angry as your rep Gloria is simply trying to take advantage of the fact that you let her know you're an immigrant. She assumes that since you are new to this country,unaware of the law, and that she can take advantage of you by making false threats. As everyone mentioned, they are just empty threats since she has no recourse of collecting. But it amounts to harassment, and I'd follow up in writing by contacting the proper channels.

A couple things I noted about your case:

- regarding the $100-150 quote, medical quotes are hard to defend as institutions claim that the person giving you the quote, most likely a receptionist, is untrained with medical procedures. The medical provider, i.e. the doctor administers the care, and then charges for all services provided. So your argument that you were quoted $150 and billed $900 and therefore you don't have to pay would be hard to defend. Quotes are just quotes and can change, just like a quote from an auto mechanic can change once he's under the hood. The proper way to do this would be to examine your itemized charges and dispute anything that you were not made aware off. I am assuming you bills came up to $900 due to numerous tests/procedures ran. The $100-150 quote may be for a doctors visit only. Regardless, you can make a fair case if you were not informed of the tests they were running nor did you give your consent. You may also dispute the medical necessity of the tests conducted. Someone on the forum mentioned that you need to pay since you owe them. That is simply silly! And I get angry and such statements. Hospitals are sometimes notorious in charging for procedures that you did not ask for or sometimes not necessary, so always look at your itemized bill and follow up. Just because something was done, doesn't mean you must pay for it.

- The hospital has no recourse of collecting the debt besides asking or even begging you to pay. After 90 days they usually report it to credit bureaus and sell it off to a collection agency. You need to send them a written notice that you are disputing the bills and that if they report to credit bureaus that they must report the debt as disputed. Make sure you use registered/certified mail when writing to them so you have a record. If they do not follow up on the dispute, you can take the communication chain and contact the BBB to follow up. And then finally take the chain to the credit bureaus to have the debt removed.

- you may soon receive calls from debt collectors for the debt if hospital passes it on, which they likely will. Once you receive those, inform the debt collector that pursuant to Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, you do not wish to be called and that contact with you must be done in writing. They must comply with this, and any further calls may be considered as harassment. Make sure to get as many details as you can from the collector, time, agent IDs, etc. and keep good records. Keep better records of calls made to you after this, as you can sure for those.

Overall, from my reading of your posts, this may be one of malpractice. It seems you believe you were not given the proper treatment that you requested and that you deserved. You went and got a second opinion, which agreed with your initial thoughts. So at this point, I'd go on the defensive. Contact a Med Mal lawyer and discuss your options. Most will take the case on a contingency basis if there is money in it and a probability of wrong doing. Given the fact that you suffered not only physically, but also mental anguish and on top of that were harassed, I think you should have great options and there would be a lineup of lawyers just waiting to take your case. You should also be compensated for having to undergo a surgical procedure, when a medical procedure could have been done if care was administered properly.

Besides all of that - please keep in mind that none of this should affect your immigration status. Even if the hospital decided to sue you, it would be a civil matter, so not affecting your AOS. And I don't believe that the hospital would take it that far, nor would the have the right to.

Again, sorry to hear about your unfortunate situation. I wish you all the best in resolving the issues through the proper channels. I hope you have a speedy resolution on these issues and also you AOS. But most importantly, I hope you recover soon and are not put through further suffering.

Cheers!

Thank you so much.

The majority of the costs came down to ultrasound scans and blood tests, which I repeatedly said I didn't want to keep receiving if I wasn't going to be able to keep the baby anyway, but they kept insisting that they NEEDED to do them in case they found anything wrong. It was as though they were just not hearing what I was saying and constantly wanted to monitor the health of the baby despite me saying I needed/wanted a termination. They kept showing me the scans and making me listen to the heartbeat and such which was even more upsetting. I think they were trying to coerce me into continuing the pregnancy, despite the impact it was having on my health, by making me watch how it was developing (even though it wasn't developing at a normal rate) and by dragging it out longer than it should have been. They would have had me coming back for more appointments if I hadn't finally put my foot down and gone elsewhere, and God knows what state I would have ended up in. At points I was on the phone to my mum in the UK crying that they were telling me they might do a laparoscopy on me to look at my endometriosis. I don't even know why they felt it necessary to start looking at my endometriosis when I was pregnant and in such ill-health already; it wouldn't have achieved anything!

[MnMJourney 28]

Sorry - just a correction on my previous post I noted.

Yes, the hospital does have legal recourse to collect debt. They can always take you to court to collect via a judgement against you. However, unless the amount owed is fairly large, the judicial route is not feasible - factoring in legal fees, time, etc. So in most cases, and for smaller sums, hospitals sell the debt to collectors.

My bad on that - so wanted to make that correction!

[lizzy33 2]

I just read the above post, as I wrote my last one.

I would have done things differently than you mentioned above:

- I would have never paid the debt collector $150. Monies paid the the debt collector does not make it all back to the hospital. They get a portion of it. The debt collector will continue to claim the remaining portion of the debt, and has a legal right to. If you wanted to pay $150 for your visits, I would have paid it directly to the hospital and let them send the remaining portion to collections. You could then dispute the entirety of that collection and not had to deal with collectors at all.

- I would never give my routing number to a debt collector- it may be my paranoia, but its a no no for me. Now they know where they can pull money from. Yes, you can contact your bank and get it back, but its just a hassle I would rather not deal with. I'd pay them with a credit card. That way you have another intermediary between you. And with a credit card, when you dispute a charge, you don't owe it while the investigation is underway.

- someone mentioned that as long as you pay something, it cannot affect your credit score. This is not true. Unless you agree with the hospital to a payment plan, then can say the debt is delinquent. If you'd like to that, most hospitals would work our a payment plan - but only based on financial hardship. You'd have to provide a income, etc. to get on a payment plan. In your case, I'd also refrain from doing so.

Finally, since you don't have a SSN yet, I wouldn't worry about a bad credit score. You don't have one established yet. I'd keep following up and get things resolved with your disputes before paying a single dime. If you wanted to pay $150, I'd make sure that would make a difference, if not I wouldn't pay till resolved. Personally, at this moment, I'd be contacting a good Med Mal lawyer to see what damages you can claim. These are simply my opinions and what I would do if I were in your shoes. You are obviously free to pursue your own plan of action. And I do wish you all the best in the path you chose!

Cheers!

We paid the $150 for a portion of the first bill (it came in two parts for some reason) and we had the collector confirm with his supervisor that it wouldn't have any affect on the other bills as this bill was in a completely separate file from the others. We paid it just so I could claim in my complaint form that I had at least payed a portion of it, to show that I was willing to pay the amount I deem reasonable, aka the amount quoted. I don't care where it went, just as long as it was paid to whoever wanted to collect it and we had a receipt for it.

Collectors can not take money out without permission, so even though he now has the routing number he would need a court order from a judge allowing him to withdraw any more money. I already made sure. Also, on the plus side, we're actually in the process of switching banks, so that account will be closed sometime this week anyway!

[belinda63 3,052]

You dispute needs to be with the hospital. You shouldn't be dealing with collectors at any time while the bill is in dispute. If collectors call you tell them you wish them to stop calling and they have to. If they continue to call report them to the government (I think it is the FTC). The hospital, who is the unit the debt is owed to is not covered by the collections laws. They can call you all they want.

The price you were quoted was probably for the emergency room service. In the United States medical system everyone gets a piece of the pie. Lab tests, physician, ultrasound, EKG, , everything is billed separately. So the emergency room (the bed) may have been $150 but all the other services are extra. It is like having a meal but having to pay ala carte.

[lizzy33 2]

You dispute needs to be with the hospital. You shouldn't be dealing with collectors at any time while the bill is in dispute. If collectors call you tell them you wish them to stop calling and they have to. If they continue to call report them to the government (I think it is the FTC). The hospital, who is the unit the debt is owed to is not covered by the collections laws. They can call you all they want.

The price you were quoted was probably for the emergency room service. In the United States medical system everyone gets a piece of the pie. Lab tests, physician, ultrasound, EKG, , everything is billed separately. So the emergency room (the bed) may have been $150 but all the other services are extra. It is like having a meal but having to pay ala carte.

"the bed" haha. I would have been lucky to get a bed. I spent the majority of the time sat in a waiting room with a bunch of pregnant mother's and babies (the last place I wanted to be considering the situation).

The collector didn't have any of the other bills, which makes me think that the first one was sent to him before Gloria even asked the billing department to put my bills on hold. As far as I'm concerned the first bill is taken care of. If any other bills go to the collector then I'm going to ask them to stop calling me.

[Mela17 36]

So is it ok not to pay the hospital bill? Won't affect the credit score at all?

It does affect the credit score but at the time i did not care about mine being affected. Simples.