can someone help with medical bill question

RudyRuetigger · 03-14-20, 01:02 PM

do you not have health insurance?

DISTROYA · 03-14-20, 01:05 PM

i do...and pay quite handsomely for it; as stated the hospital bill was 170k, they paid 162k, so on the hook for 8k bill coming soon

KVB · 03-14-20, 01:07 PM

Hospitals will offer payment plans with 0% interest to anyone that owes, it's not like they run credit to decide what to charge you in interest or even to decide if you qualify.

Think about it, they want to get paid, and they know they are suprising nearly every patient.

If you spend a grand on a good attorney, they can make a call, and get that bill reduced to next to nothing...like 1or 2k.

It's about whether or not you knew just how much they were going to charge. I have seen FIRST HAND, an attorney make one call and get a 14K hospital bill down to $1400.

Get a good attorney and it could save you money.

DISTROYA · 03-14-20, 01:10 PM

thanks KVB! Whats their take, how do you think they charge? A percentage of what you save?
Wondering if anyone has had experience directly calling billing and talking it down a good chunk.

pologq · 03-14-20, 01:39 PM

i know people who give sob stories and get a payment plan.

the lawyer part sounds interesting.

RudyRuetigger · 03-14-20, 01:42 PM

so your out of pocket max is 8k?

doesnt sound like that great of a plan

KVB · 03-14-20, 01:45 PM

Originally posted by DISTROYA

thanks KVB! Whats their take, how do you think they charge? A percentage of what you save?
Wondering if anyone has had experience directly calling billing and talking it down a good chunk.

Actually I don't know that because the attorney was on retainer from a powerful firm. When I said get a good attorney, I really did mean one that can bully people and has a big firm behind them to back it up.

You can get that with what used to be called "pre-paid Legal" it's now a different name.

I don't want to link too much but for 20 bucks a month, you can retain some seriously powerful legal experts.

So there was no percentage take, we had already paid the attorneys their 20 bucks for a month.

Otherwise, that same service would be several hundreds billed per hour.

Bottom line, a call from an attorney directly to hospital billing can make a difference.

I mentioned spend 1K on them becasue that's what I figured it would take if it wasn't pre paid.

jw · 03-14-20, 01:53 PM

They will gladly take payment plans.

I recently had bill for $1100. I was expecting it and had the cash on hand to pay it when I called.

In the past I have been able to negotiate a 10% discount if I paid in full, So i figured I would give it a try before making the payment.
This time they refused to offer any kind of discount for a full payment, so I asked if i could pay monthly installments instead, they told me that would be fine, when I asked what the minimum payment they would take each month would be, they told me $5 per month would be fine as long as I made the payments on-time each month.

They were willing to let me pay $5 per month for the next 18 YEARS, rather than knock $100 off the bill and be done with it.
Part of me was tempted to take the payments and hope they went out of business before my 18 years was done.

If you don't ask, you don't get. I would not expect a reduction in charges on a max out of pocket fee, but they will be very receptive to monthly payments. I'm surprised they went ahead and did the surgery without the payment up front to be honest, the last couple of surgeries I have had, they have taken me in the office beforehand and taken the hospital's deductible before they would go ahead and schedule the surgery.

DISTROYA · 03-14-20, 02:12 PM

surgery fee was 30k...already paid doctor half because he isnt in ANY network...insurance pays 50% of that (spinal fusion)
yes, blue shield gold plan out of pocket max 8k for mid-age man in los angeles, paying 700+ month just for myself.
Welcome to California.