How are you dealing with medical bills?

tee18 · September 2014

We have insurance through DH's work. When DS was born, we had saved up money to pay for the bills all at once, but we weren't able to this time since we've been paying medical bills ever since (DS had an unexpected condition that required surgery and now requires check ups and xrays every few months - he's doing well!).

So, now that more medical bills are rolling in, we can't afford them all at once (current bill is $800). I've emailed asking for a payment plan, but am totally unfamiliar with how that works. I know we all have different doctors and insurance companies, but in general, have you been able to work out payment plans? Can anyone provide me any insight?

Thanks!

Dani_Love · September 2014

I was able to work out payment plans with any bill I received. I couldn't pay 400 and 150 all at once so the 150 was 50 a month and the 400 was 100 a month after that. They should be able to work with you

mirigirl · September 2014

When I had my miscarriage last year, I had a bill for $700. When I called my OBGYN's office and asked if I could make payments, they initially said no. After a little begging and pleading, they agreed to put me on a three month payment plan to pay it off. I am not sure on hospital policies for this, but my OB's office seems ruthless with bill collection. I am fairly certain most hospitals have payment plans.

Hope it all works out for you!!

StephanieLBerg · September 2014

Hospitals will almost always accept payment plan. Basically, you go into their billing department and tell them how much you can afford to pay each month and then they send you a bill. They'd much rather work with you on it than place it on your credit report just for you to bankrupt out on it later, especially if its for sizeable amount. Usually doctors offices will do this too for the same reason. If your OB refuses to put you on a payment plan, then all you have to say is I can't afford to pay it right now. For the most part, they get the picture and allow you to do it anyway.

MapleMomma · September 2014

I've never had a problem with payment plans for medical bills. As long as you're paying a bit at a time, no worries.

amygirl78 · September 2014

From what I have heard and read, as long as your paying something monthly, they can not do anything about it. I got hit with 5 different medical bills in 1week it was so overwhelming at one time. I know how your feeling. Just try to pay off the smallest ones and pay something not the others first. You'll eventually see them go away. I'm just about to see the light at the end of this dr bill tunnel. I guess it's just the calm before the storm of the hospital and delivery bill

Alygohome · September 2014

I live in Canada so I don't have this issue, but one of my friends married an American and had a baby there, she paid installments monthly for the birth. I can't believe how expensive it is to have a baby down there! She only paid a little bit each month (all she could afford) and I think they gave her a few years to pay it back.

MommyOfAMiracle · September 2014

You should be able to make payments. Most of the time the standard is to split the bill into three monthly payments. If that's their protocol and you can't afford that, then tell them. Just be honest and tell them that you'd like to pay the balance, but just can't and let them know what you CAN afford a month. It's always great if you are prepared to make a payment the same day as the phone call, as good faith.

If you aren't able to afford payments, you can most definitely check with the facility and see if there is some type of finanical assistance available. Sometimes they will grant patients huge discounts or even waive the fee's if your financial background shows a financial hardship.

It costs money to send patients to collections, so the office would rather have SOMETHING collected rather than just send you to collections. I work for a couple of doctors offices and hospitals in doing their patient and insurance billing. Good luck!

krysmill · September 2014

We've had a couple of bills so far but my DH's company gives him a care card each year and the money just kerps adding up. I've been paying my bills with that except one of our bigger bills! Most places will take what ever you give them. They would rather get a little something then nothing. In the past I'd just pay what ever I could afford that month.

mamabisme · September 2014

My portion of the delivery cost alone is $3,100. Our maternity insurance sucks. We knew it sucked going in to this so we expected bills but didn't know it would be quite this bad (different insurance for DD 1 & 2). We are on a payment plan of $787 and change per month, for four months. So far, we have been able to swing the first 2 payments but may have to put at least 1 of the remaining 2 on our credit card. We typically don't use credit and don't like to carry any debt but it would help us to have a little more time to pay on it. It would definitely be paid off by the time I deliver and we intend to use money we receive from the insurance company, in an HSA, to pay the hospital bill. The HSA thing is an incentive program for doing different screenings and things throughout the year (biometric screening, etc). We get that money in January and it should be enough to cover our portion of the hospital bill, or at least come pretty close.

magsame · September 2014

Like all PPs said they should work with you. My OB wants full payment of universal care bill by 20 weeks. So I've been making payments since to be paid off by 20 weeks. And a majority of hospitals will do a payment plan. If you look at the bill, there should be a number to call to talk to someone. I had kidney stone surgery in 2012 and tons of Dr and medical bills. I always saw a note that said "Can't pay you bill? Call 188888888" So check those so you could talk to someone.

sleepymama29 · September 2014

My OB set up a payment plan already based on my insurance. The only thing I have to pay after the baby comes is the hospital bill but our hospital is more then happy to set up a payment arrangement. Most places just wanna get paid!

mahalo3 · September 2014

I make up my own payment plan. I pay my dr. $100 a month. It will be paid off before baby comes, and they don't seem to mind.

jennjilljo · September 2014

My OB came to me with a payment plan. It's their policy to help make it workable.

winterbabe2015 · September 2014

My portion of OB charges after insurance was $1,030.00. I paid that before my 20 week check up. All that will be left is hospital charges when we deliver. With our insurance it is 20% of the total charges but I have an out of pocket max of $2,000.00. With last delivery (same hospital and insurance) they took monthly payments.

twinklymama · September 2014

As the practice manager of a doc office, anything you send with the first bill will keep anyone in collections from bugging you, and as long as you are paying something every 30 days, you can usually stay under the radar. Like most PP said, they want to collect from you, even if it takes longer, because if they send to a collection agency, it could cost them 30% or worse, you claim bankruptcy and they get nothing!

The biggest thing is communication! If you can't pay it all at once or need to change your payment plan, call them before they call you!

t8keepr03 · September 2014

I have to pay my OB what they expect will be the charge for them to deliver, prenatal care and postpartum care before 28 weeks. If I don't pay in full they will drop me. If I can't afford it I have to find a different OB. So because we love them we will put it on the credit card and pay on that because they won't do a payment plan. Now the hospital will charge for myself and the baby. I will call them and put that on a payment plan. With my DD we paid $20 a month until our credit card was paid and then we would give them more. They were more than willing to send me a $20 bill each month than nothing.

sweetdreamz6700 · September 2014

Tons of great advice! I'll echo quite a few of the pps by saying communicate, communicate, communicate! Offer to pay what you can afford and go from there

tee18 · September 2014

Thanks everyone! I'll pay what I can for now and wait for a call back. I appreciate all of the advice & experiences!

lulu4087 · September 2014

My Ob office has someone from billing contact you after 16weeks. They go over your insurance and expected costs for either vaginal or c section. They started a payment plan monthly for me already so hopefully, with no unforeseen complications, I'll be payed off by the time of birth. They are very proactive and up front with everything which is very helpful.
Otherwise, with my other medical bills, I've always been able to work out a payment plan.

psychobutthead · September 2014

I have a payment plan for ny OB bill. Its$284 a month until December then Ill be paid off. So its six payments in total. Thats all my doctors office would let me do. Im trying to work until december. Most places will let you makea payment plan.I have yet to see a hospital or doctors office let you pay just what you can afford a month. In my experince they give you an option of paying the bill off in a max of six months.

MissEm15 · September 2014

mamabisme said:

My portion of the delivery cost alone is $3,100. Our maternity insurance sucks. We knew it sucked going in to this so we expected bills but didn't know it would be quite this bad (different insurance for DD 1 & 2). We are on a payment plan of $787 and change per month, for four months. So far, we have been able to swing the first 2 payments but may have to put at least 1 of the remaining 2 on our credit card. We typically don't use credit and don't like to carry any debt but it would help us to have a little more time to pay on it. It would definitely be paid off by the time I deliver and we intend to use money we receive from the insurance company, in an HSA, to pay the hospital bill. The HSA thing is an incentive program for doing different screenings and things throughout the year (biometric screening, etc). We get that money in January and it should be enough to cover our portion of the hospital bill, or at least come pretty close.

How did you find out your delivery would be that cost... did you call your insurance or the hospital?

MissEm15 · September 2014

My cousin did say if you tell the hospital you want to pay in full, they will give you a 20% discount. At least this hospital did.

michelle142 · September 2014

I've never had a hospital or clinic deny a payment plan. Generally, as long as they are getting their money in some way, shape or form, they don't care about the dollar amount.

srcr2011 · September 2014

Do you think you might qualify for Medicaid- pregnancy related? I know it's income based. When I was pregnant with DS, DH was working as a security escort for roofers on secure government property. Long story short, not much escorting was needed in winter months, so he was eligible for unemployment at the time (he didn't even make half of his paycheck with unemployment, but it was something). With his unemployment and my puny check, we qualified for pregnancy related medicaid as secondary insurance. (I would have never found out had a friend not told me about it). Medicaid picked up the co-pays my regular insurance had. I'm not sure if you would qualify or if it's something you would be interested in. It may help if you qualify.

Cookie0875 · September 2014

The cost for me for all prenatal visits AND for my OB at delivery is $2,004 after insurance. So we're on a payment plan to pay $501 a month until Dec for a total of 4 payments. Our insurance SUCKS...sad thing is, it's pretty good for where I live. I have a friend here at work who went to the same OB, same hospital (they only deliver at one) and ended up getting $1,400 of that back from them after they sent her a bill for $600 after she had her DS. She called to find out why a second bill was sent since it was all supposed to be included in that $2k and they said oh, you're right, we owe you $1400. I tried to get the OB to only charge me the $600 since chances are I'll get the rest back, but they wouldn't do it. Oh well...they did put me on a payment plan.

I'm not sure if this is true in all states, but talk to your hospital about paying cash instead of going through insurance. We did this when DH had kidney stones and they cut our bill in half because it wasn't going through insurance, and still set us up on payment plan. It was the same hospital I'll be delivering in, so we're going to see if we have this option again for that and if it will save us money. The only down side is that you don't have that nice chunk going toward your deductible, so we'll have to weigh the pros and cons of that.

Allie429 · September 2014

Our OB and hospital does a payment plan. For my first it was a little over $500 for the ob and we had a few payments of $99. (We received all this money back after the baby was born). This time it is over $700 so our payments are $188.00. With the hospital-our total bill (including myself and daughter) was about $1400. We are doing payments of $60.00 a month. They have a certain scale on how much gets paid back depending on how high your bill is.

PeaceofKia · September 2014

This is so reassuring to read... I was totally freaking out about having to pay all of the costs for the twins at once. We can totally do monthly payments though.

PikoPiko · September 2014

My OB quoted me $4800 for a global charge for OB care and varginal delivery, before insurance. They actually want me to pay in installments, but I've told them I'll pay in Jan in lump sum. I'm hoping that way it'd just all go toward next year's insurance deductible instead of split between this and next year.

I have a HSA account that I've been maxing out my pre tax contributions in the last couple years. There's enough in the account to cover this whole pregnancy and the first couple years.

jennypolkadots · September 2014

If we were using our insurance for delivery, my total bill would be about $1000. My insurance is Aetna PPO 300 and it pays 90% after the $300 deductible. My work covers it 100% so I don't personally pay for it. I am bummed that they will not cover our out of hospital birth or midwife care at all.

So we have to pay $3400 directly to our midwives by 36 weeks. Thankfully we can afford this but it still makes me sick because my insurance rocks but they won't pay. If we don't pay by 36 weeks then it is $4400 and we can do a payment plan. Prenatal visits are $40 and I have about 8 left, and 2 with an OB office that I am going to just for an emergency backup. I elected to put $2500 in an FSA so at least $2500 of our total expenses will be tax free and we can reimburse ourselves after the birth. I'm still going to file the birth fee with my insurance, but not expecting anything.

We've had medical bills in the past that we had to work payment plans out for. From our past experience, everyone seems happy to do a payment plan because otherwise they probably will just be unpaid. If you have a financial burden and can't afford the hospital bill ask about their service. Most hospitals have funds in place specifically to help people that want to pay but genuinely can't afford it.

CGOODPAS · September 2014

Many hospitals have charity assistance programs that can help cover expenses not covered by health insurance. I recently dealt with this after my father passed away. His insurance covered a lot but there were still a mountain of bills left over. He said in two different hospitals both offered payment plans and assistance. I had to contact the billing offices (which can be a headache but mostly they are understanding and helpful). I was able to help my mother get the balance set up on manageable payments and some costs were reduced to her qualifying for assistance. I hope this helps! I know how stressful it can be and even when it doesn't seem like it everything will get worked out

jennypolkadots · September 2014

@hikerlady - thanks! Our midwife also has a billing service. I am taking a photocopy of my insurance card to our appointment Tuesday and will keep my fingers crossed. It costs about $25 for them to check which I figure is well worth it. here's hoping they will cover some of it! I think the major kicker is that midwife assisted home birth is illegal in our home state (Alabama) so we will be delivering in a home birth house (basically unlicensed birth center) in Tennessee. Also Aetna's guidelines clearly state that they don't cover CPMs or home births.

I have read that there may be some medical billing codes that they will accept. For example, if the midwife bills them directly for the cost of care but not delivery services and gets her full fee that way. We are just preparing to pay out of pocket anyways so any the insurance covers will just be a bonus!

https://www.aetna.com/cpb/medical/data/300_399/0329.html

fostersstudio · September 2014

You can apply for the Care Credit card. It's a card used only for medical purposes and on ours we get 6 months no interest. It's a nice alternative to payment plans in my opinion.

kefttsc · September 2014

Side note: My insurance sucks and j couldn't change to a more affordable ACA plan (obamacare) because i live near state lines and would have had to change all of my doctors. Eff you, government.
January 2015 SHOULD be bringing a change that erases the demographic limitations. So we will see....
I currently have a giant deductible plan ($5000) so tell babies will most likely cost $5000 this year and $5000 next year, unless they come at the end of December.
You guys consider yourselves lucky

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