That is the amount I have to come up with to pay the hospital BEFORE they even start my procedure or send the bill to the insurance agency.
What is this money for?
Well this bill is the up front costs for the surgery I am going to have on Tuesday, February 26.
Do I have this money? Or course not!
What am I going to do?
Any ideas?
This does not include the amount they are predicting for AFTER the surgery and the insurance payment.
This is stressing me out. I just got through with paying the bills from spending Thanksgiving in the hospital and now this is coming up. I am really researching options now so if you have any advice on where to look or what to do PLEASE let me know.
Wow, what kind of insurance do you have? I have not had the misfortune of EVER having to pay before a surgery…and I’m fortunate enough right now that virtually everything is covered 100%.
I’d say, get some different insurance, but that doesn’t really help you right now, does it?
Do you have any liquid funds? Like an emergency fund? At worst, you could cash out some investments, even your 401k (you could borrow against it too).
My route, however, if I didn’t have readily available funds, would be a credit card.
Hope this helps.
Bill
I have BCBS…and I have never heard of paying before either. I was sick today and probably zonked out on the flu medicine so I will be calling the hospital tomorrow to find out about that.
I know I have to pay the copay amount of $100 but the rest of that amount before actually seeing the doctor is news to me.
And no I don’t have any liquid funds….I had to drain the emergency fund and all the other savings to pay for the bills from Thanksgiving and Christmas.
Have you tried to borrow the money on Prosper? That might take too long, I guess, but you could put the charge on a credit card and try to get the loan on Prosper to pay it off early and w/ less interest.
I tried Prosper and did not get it. I recently used Lending Club and got that…but I already used the money to consolidate and pay off the high interest cards….which I will have to end up using again to pay this next set of medical bills. 🙁
If you are actively involved with your local church group, talk to them and see if they can help, they often enjoy finding a way to help.
Other than that, talk to your network of people, see if they are willing to do a Handshake Loan which can be processed through Virgin Money (Used to be Circle Lending until they sold out to Virgin).
BTW,
most insurance companies will not cover LASIK so therefore, all the expenses relating to LASIK will not be covered. It can be paid using your FSA or HSA (Flex Spending Account or Health Spending Account)which is pre-tax.
I thought about doing LASIK myself too and after some rooting around, I found out the majority of insurance will not pay for LASIK.
As for FSA, it turns out I could pay 2500 per year so if I time my surgery for December where I can use year 1 to pay up front in December and year 2 to pay off the rest after surgery.
Maybe you want to hold off on the surgery until you can come up with the money?
Mark, drink some coffee! This surgery next week is not for LASIK…it is some other stuff that I MUST get. The LASIK was optional. This is medical condition…the one that put me in the hospital the week of Thanksgiving…blood transfusions….passing out…remember that post (go look for it).
BTW on the LASIK find out if the places you go to look at take the GE Money card. They pay for optional stuff like LASIK and they gave me 24 months interest free to pay for the LASIK. So even though the insurance does not cover it…I have two years to pay it…no interest. The site is http://www.carecredit.com/ and they have different payment options.
Heh, how did you know I needed coffee. Okay, gonna go find the other post, I remember it vaguely.