at the end of last school year I was cutting mat/illustration board for a presentation and I cut the end of my finger real bad. I went to the hospital and got 3 stitches.
soon after that I got 2 separate bills.
one from the hospital, and one from the Dr. that did the stitching. I called the ins company and I am pretty sure they told me I didnt have to worry about paying the Dr. but today I got a letter in the mail from a lawyer saying I owed 250 to him... on top of the almost 400 to the hospital.
I am paying the hospital off 20 bucks a month... I am unemployed and have been for a while(student), will that make any difference for me having to pay the Dr.?
I know I need to call and talk directly to them, just wanted to hear peoples opinions about what I can do, as well as how far they can take it...
anyone else paid that much for 3 stitches? personally I wont go back to the hospital unless my leg falls off.
the insurance didnt pay a fucking dime...

The doctor got a lawyer involved before he contacted you through his office personnel? That's screwy. Do you have any letters from his office or the insurance company that predate the lawyer's letter? If not, fuck the lawyer. Send him a certified letter telling him to collect his bill from his client, not you. You aren't paying.

Why didn't insurance pay? get someone on the phone (get a full name!!!) and get answers. Tell them there's lawyers harassing you and they better get on the ball or you'll get a lawyer too. GET ANSWERS!!

Did the injury happen on school grounds? You can make a claim against the school's liability insurance to pay for the whole thing. Keep that in mind.

Get the best paper trail together that you can to back up your story and poke holes in theirs.

Hef

I hate medical insurance. When the pay it's all good.....but getting em to do that is like trying to light water on fire.

My wife and the baby racked up close to 50K in medical bills, and just when we finally think that insurance has paid for it all, we get another bill in the mail for close to 6k. I swear.....it's all a joke.

I'd say if you went to the ER and got off with a $600 bill consider yourself lucky, we are somewhere in the neck of 8k a night. :eek: Fawking hospital.

Originally posted by GloNDark

My wife and the baby racked up close to 50K in medical bills, and just when we finally think that insurance has paid for it all, we get another bill in the mail for close to 6k. I swear.....it's all a joke.

Does it always cost that much money to have a kid? Fawk, cause if so, my kid is being born in the yard like the cows.

Originally posted by Hef
The doctor got a lawyer involved before he contacted you through his office personnel? That's screwy. Do you have any letters from his office or the insurance company that predate the lawyer's letter? If not, fuck the lawyer. Send him a certified letter telling him to collect his bill from his client, not you. You aren't paying.

Why didn't insurance pay? get someone on the phone (get a full name!!!) and get answers. Tell them there's lawyers harassing you and they better get on the ball or you'll get a lawyer too. GET ANSWERS!!

Did the injury happen on school grounds? You can make a claim against the school's liability insurance to pay for the whole thing. Keep that in mind.

Get the best paper trail together that you can to back up your story and poke holes in theirs.

Hef

the only thing I ever got from the Dr. was bills/statements... I always ignored them because I thought I didnt have to pay...

the reason the insurance didnt pay was because for every person in the family a 500 dollar deductable or something has to be paid... and my parents only had enough to pay for a couple... not enough for 6 people... so I'm screwed... I'm pretty sure I'll have to pay it...

It didnt happen on school property... and even if it did they got their ass covered... we have to sign a waiver sheet the first day of class... in every class.


I'm thinking of calling the Dr. and talking to him about it... maybe he'll be sympathetic for me and understand, but I doubt it. I dont think I could ever even get in touch with him...

If you got bills, you get to pay them. Oh lucky you.

But the insuarance comapny should have taken care of it.

However, make the same arrangements with your doctor as you did with the hospital. Be nice and polite and I'm sure all will be good in the end. Besides if you pay your 20 chances are really good that they will significantly lower the total amount due after they see you are trying.

As a doc, if a patient calls and lets me know they intend to make good on a bill, I will honor that and set up a payment plan. If you have a deductable to pay, chances are they will not lower the payment. But, sometimes they will lower a bill to 'cash' rates. Worth asking.



Sue

stitches and other minor surg. add up quick due to the amount of consumables used: irrigation ,lidocane,gauze,tools,time, probly stuck your arse with an IV for shitsangiggles,atibiotics($$$$$),pain killers ,anti inflamitories(sp) time ,more time.
thats why for us injury prone idividuals (me) become involved with emergency medicine or make friends with someone who is.
Heck being in the military gives you free health care:flipoff2:




oh wait i AM the "health care"

Blake, when we had our kiddo, it was like 9k total, so no, its not usually that expensive.

Originally posted by liliysdad
Blake, when we had our kiddo, it was like 9k total, so no, its not usually that expensive.


9K is still expensive! I never knew!

:eek:

Hang him by his ankles off the Savannah Bridge and convince him he doesn't need the money.


Hef :flipoff2:

Good luck, man, I feel for ya.:( Thank gawd you didn't have an ambulance bill too. I hope you can at least get your bill reduced by talking it out with your doctor. It's just not cool how little insurance will pay these days and how huge bills can get when you get a little bit of treatment.

yeah, nine thou, try being 21, married, and your wife in school and paying for that shit. Talk about sucking. the insurance paid 75%, but it seems like a new bill comes every week, and shes a year and a half now.

Don't know about Georgia but here in MI all you have to do is send them $5 a month and there's nothing they can do about it including charging you intrest.

Two weeks before my second was born the company I worked for decided our insurance was too expensive so they bumped us up to a 20% co-pay plan from a 100% paid. My wife's OBGYN was very sympethetic and told us about the $5 a month loophole so that's all we paid him for 7 years. Hell he even made it so she was only in the hospital for a grand total of 18 hours! She went in at 6 pm and was out by noon the next day!
From what I understand they can't do anything because you are making a "reasonable attempt" to pay the bill.

As far as ambulance bills go my last trip in one was only 4 blocks long but the bill was $600!:eek: Damn good thing my insurance picked it up!

Originally posted by Hef
Hang him by his ankles off the Savannah Bridge and convince him he doesn't need the money.


Hef :flipoff2:

I wish...

update- wellI just got off the phone with the lawyer and there was no way I was getting out of it... I talked her down to 10 bucks a month... I guess that's better than paying all of it at once...