emzee
california
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Joined: 10/22/2006
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Just a thought here, you say you own your home. maybe now is the time to put your home in your kids names. they have a look back period for that too so mybe sooner is better than later. I know they say not to do that because the kids will have to pay capital gains but sometimes it is necessary to save the home from creditors(the government)! could you just take out an equity loan, that may be easier than refinancing however, you probably would be better off with a first loan it's tax deductible and you'll get a ower interest rate? good luck and all the best to you.
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Bumpyroad
Virginia
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Joined: 12/01/2005
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emzee wrote:Just a thought here, you say you own your home. maybe now is the time to put your home in your kids names. they have a look back period for that too so mybe sooner is better than later. I know they say not to do that because the kids will have to pay capital gains but sometimes it is necessary to save the home from creditors(the government)! could you just take out an equity loan, that may be easier than refinancing however, you probably would be better off with a first loan it's tax deductible and you'll get a ower interest rate? good luck and all the best to you.
probably be gift tax also, and lose that million or so that you can leave them in a will. I don't know if I would trust my kids if they got hard up and evicted me. 
bumpy
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kaybee
SC
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Joined: 04/20/2004
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We're faced with a lot of medical bills as well. One of dh's physicians told him that hospitals have to take your money as payment in good faith - even if you send them only $1 a month! They still have to honor your payment without reporting you to the credit police.
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Bumpyroad
Virginia
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kaybee wrote:We're faced with a lot of medical bills as well. One of dh's physicians told him that hospitals have to take your money as payment in good faith - even if you send them only $1 a month! They still have to honor your payment without reporting you to the credit police.
some how I question that. and I don't go to my physician for financial advice. Yes, it may be a legal stall, the same as sending a 1 cent check for child support, but doesn't cure your bad credit.
bumpy
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helperzack
Port St. Lucie, FL
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What I think is most of the problem for families like mine are: The ability or non-ability to get affordable health care coverage. And medical prices are overpriced to the self pay client.
I myself used to work in medical management. One company that I worked for had contracts out the wazoo with all the different insurance companies. One product or service would have a "list" price of say $450.00.
Insurance company A would pay $200.00 for that product or service.
Insurance company B would pay $145.00 for that product or service.
Insurance company C would pay $75.00 for that product or service.
Insurance company D would pay $45.00 for that product or service.
Self pay client would be billed and most times pay $450.00 for that product or service. All the while they all were receiving the exact same product or service.
Why if they can accept $45.00 from an insurance company that takes sometimes months to pay, can't they accept that from self pay clients who have the means to pay today?
That's just the way it is. Back years ago even Medicare would adjust their allowable UP to the average that everyone billed for a product or service in prior years. That started forcing everyone to continually increase their price upward.
Most people are not looking for a legal stall, but a way to afford to pay back their obligations. Yes there are those who are out just to sc_ew the system. But how can a family of any size living on say $40,000 a year, having some unexpected health problems, afford to keep a roof over their head, feed themselves and remain somewhat productive, with hospital bills which can run into millions.
Like in my case, insurance with a 2 year pre existing for DW would cost me $34,800.00 per year. And at that they would not pay as everything would be considered pre-existing due to her diabetes(this from the agent.)
Have a great day, it's still a blessing to be living in America.
* This post was
edited 09/12/08 10:22am by an administrator/moderator *
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jwmII
out west
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Joined: 05/12/2003
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Explain it this way. Every month you put all your creditors names in a hat and you draw names for payment. Those not drawn don't get paid but have another shot at being drawn the following month.
For those who want to cause problems explain to them that they are in danger of their name not even being in the hat next month.
Seriously, Usually a pretty good discount is offered if there is any way at all you can come up with the money all at once and some will discount for a minimal number of payments.
jwmII
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Deen
Vancouver, WA
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Joined: 12/07/2000
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As I have written before: my step daughter died Aug 13th. leaving us with two grandkids to raise. She was in the hosp. overnight to find out why she was having terrible leg pains. They released her and diagnosed it as gout. 5 days later she died of blood clots that formed in her legs and lodged in her lungs. The hosp. is trying to bill her "estate" (she was on welfare) for the about $10,000 bill. Right now we are waiting for the final coronors report before consulting an attorney about the misdiagnosis.
Her other creditors are hounding her "estate" for payment also. since there isn't any money in her "estate" no one will get a thing.
However our own bills are paid! We have a medical plan that has a saving account tied to it but then, after that is gone we have the "donut hole". HAve to pay 100% of all expenses up to $3,600 after the original $1,000 or so is gone, plus the ins. isn't paying like they should. We're supposed to get prescriptions at no cost except for shipping, we tried to use it and were charged #255 for five prescriptions that cost less than $100 at WalMart, some are not on the $4 or $10 plan either. Had to write the AG's office and file a complaint to get the ins company to take those charges off. Meanwhile others in her office, under the same plan, get theirs almost free, like we're supposed to. The ins comppany never answerd my request for info on why we weren't being treated the same as the others. Six months later and still no response.
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Camperroo
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First of all I am sorry to hear you are one of thousands and thousands in this country who cannot get healthcare because of a pre-existing condition and then are left with large debts because of an illness you certainly didn't ask for. Just the situation of no healthcare is stressful enough without anyone saying if you owe them you owe them. You obviously are well intentioned and concerned about this. I worked in a healthcare setting for 7 years, what I can tell you is that as long as you are making payments at whatever you can afford there is really very little they can do to you. They can threaten all they want but if you wound up in court over it because they sue you, etc., as long as you can show that you are making good faith efforts to make a monthly or weekly, biweekly payments however you may set it up to the limit you can reasonably afford, you will walk out with judgment on your side. Negotiate the bills also, most hospitals and doctors if they are truly not blood suckers will at least negotiate the payment to what insurance would pay for vs. the actual amount they submit to the insurance company. That's the problem with this whole disgusting system. If we submitted a bill for say $150 for an office visit, the insurance would only reimburse us approx. $65-$80, the balance is written off at that point as with most insurance unless you have a deductible you can't balance bill a patient. If offices and hospitals would just reduce their rates to what they know they are actually going to be getting which is still a reasonable amount, more HMO's etc would be out of business and out of trying to dictate to a doctor how to run a medical practice or hospital. Now if you were a private pay patient you would be billed the $150 being none the wiser, so always ask, on this amount through insurance, what you settle on, because it's only fair that that is what I should realistically have to pay. Be an educated patient and don't hesitate to fight the system, it's ripe with overcharging. It seems almost criminal to me the way offices and insurance companies are set up with billing practices. Essentially with insurance if the doctor wants a bigger insurance payment for services then they just bill higher so that $150 charge could be upped to $185 and they'll get a bit more in payment from the insurance company.
Believe it or not, that's the real picture from actual behind the scenes experience working in a medical setting. So speak up folks and understand the deals being cut between these insurance companies and the offices. Most doctors do hate it, especially the HMOs but it's what most people pick for insurance because of it's supposed affordability...affordability my behind! They are corrupt from switching doctors ordered prescriptions to their determined formulary which is cheaper for them, without first asking the patient if they even want to accept it and pay for the brand name, to establishing policies about how long to wait to order say an MRI for someone with back pain. Our healthcare system is not run by physicians anymore, they are under the thumb of insurance companies and more people need to expose all their little hidden rules and secrets you as a patient will never know about and make some noise about it.
"Time with your family is time well spent"
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helperzack
Port St. Lucie, FL
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Wanted to share an update. A couple of weeks back I received the hospital bill for my wife's 5 day stay. $49,000 then they deducted $14,000 for not having insurance, balance $35,000. I phoned the billing office hoping to work out something and asked what we could do. They informed me that a letter was automatically generated and I would receive it soon.
This week I receive the letter stating that the discount that they had offered had been denied. Now the balance they want is $49,000. I phone them back and they ask for me to send them my last years tax return and three months bank statements. That is where we stand right now.
I am hoping to be able to negotiate them down a bit. They seem to have no sense of urgency. We will just wait and see.
On another note: I have an elderly client whom I take care of his books. He owes the same hospital company money from a year back. He refuses to let me pay them as he says that he never asked for the treatment that he received. When I phoned them on his behalf, trying to negotiate a lower amount. They informed me that they would just write it off. The thing that gets me is, this client is in his eighty's and has a couple of million dollars and could pay it without blinking an eye.
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Charlie D.
Gonzales, La.
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Joined: 09/12/2006
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Check with your insurance company and find out what they say your portion is.
I have Aetna PPO as a retiree and can check my statemens on line. I have had a lot of medical bills his year and prostate removal in May. Aetna will show what they paid, the discount amount and my portion.
Both this year and last year I saw where the doctors and hospitals were billing me more than Aetna said I should pay.
In some cases, a call to the billing dept. caused a reduction in the amount they said I owe. In other cases, I mailed them the statement from Aetna's web site. Yesterday, I received a corrected bill from my surgeon. A reduction of almost $3,000.
Some doctors and hospitals have billing agencies handle all their bills and sometimes they do their own. Contact whomever is doing the billing, if you haven't already, and speak to them. In the case of my surgeon, the adjusted billing came from them whereas it had been coming from the billing agency they were using.
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