ugh...hospital bills :(

pea-kay

yes, my boys are almost a year old, and we're still dealing with hospital bills. the issues is their copays, which are more than we can afford to pay right now. so i applied for financial assistance with the hospital IN MAY. that was, yes, almost six months ago. and i call every  month or so to find out what the status of our application is, and every time they call they say they're still reviewing it.

well, now one of the bills has gone to collections. and it's just so frustrating. with my luck, the other two bills will go to different collection agencies so we wouldnt' even be able to work a deal to get them paid together. 

just venting. it just sucks. we set out to have one baby, and we were so very very blessed to get three healthy boys, but we never budgeted for that many! :P

(oh, yeah, and the woman at the collection agency was saying "oh, god wouldn't have given you what you couldn't handle" which just pisses me off because god isn't paying the freaking bills. or actually, he sort of is since we both work for the catholic church. well, god, I NEED A RAISE.)

linda98ny

i bet you did a virtual slap of that woman who told you God wouldn't give you what you can't handle. ?

I'm so sorry you're going through this. ?How can they be so efficient with getting something into collections but not with reviewing your application?

Perhaps writing a letter to the head of the hospital might help. ?Sometimes if the right eyes get on something you can get some things moving. ?Good luck.?

sweater

wait...you have to apply to get a payment plan from the hospital??? seriously? That makes me greatful! We're on a payment plan of $100/month until it's paid. (Jaxon was completely covered by the state of WI since he was born so small...Brady didn't qualify).

itsallover

Are they legally allowed to send you to collections while you are trying to work it out with them?  I was under the impression that they couldnt do that.

 sorry!

pea-kay

itsallover:

Are they legally allowed to send you to collections while you are trying to work it out with them?  I was under the impression that they couldnt do that.

 sorry!

 huh....that's a good point! 

mommyof4boys

We got sent to a collection agency three times now while we're paying on Chris' bill. It was around 900 dollars and we could only afford 50 dollars a month.  They didn't apply it to the entire bill and were going to send is an overpayment check but sent us to a collection agency.  I called the president of the hospital in desperation and got it taken care of.

cands

Peakay, was there someone at the hospital press department that you dealt with when ABC News was around?  If there was someone who was your point of contact on that, it might help to contact them now.  Just an idea.

KLyn

You can also contact the hospital's patient advocate if you haven't done so already. ?If the hospital doesn't have one on staff?try searching google for a private one in you area. They generally go through non-profit agencies and get a minimal fee if any. ?good luck!