Welcome to How I Save Money.
I thought I was done with all the bills from the time I had to stay in the hospital and the time I had surgery. Well apparently the billing company was just holding its breath to see when it could kick me in the finances face one more time.
I got a bill in the mail for Anesthesia for $249.24 for the surgery from February. I really thought I had paid off all the bills and I was now concentrating on paying off the loan I had to take (well the loan someone gave me) to help pay the bills.
Now along comes this one ON TOP of the bills I have to pay to help my mother for her ovarian cancer. I know that $249 seems like a small amount now but it is a lot to me right now since I am dealing with my mother’s hospital bills.
I called the billing company and tried to negotiate with them. After a long time on the phone the best I could get was a zero percent interest payment for 6 months. I would have to pay $40 a month for the first five months and pay the balance in the sixth month in full. This would allow me to make smaller monthly payments and the hospital gets their money and won’t trash my credit score.
I am not 100% pleased with the result but it is better than nothing so I have agreed to the terms. I am going to make the first payment of $49.24 and then make the rest of the payments at $40 a month.
I guess this means I need to make some more money with this blog so I am trying to think of ideas.
I can totally identify with you when it comes to hospital bills. I hate getting them and I know from experience that many hospital billing departments can be tough to cut a deal with. Don’t forget that some unpaid hospital bills can hurt your credit score.
Hospital bills are an absolute killer. My husband fell last year and smashed his shoulder – needed two surgeries and the bill came to $30,000!!! Plus, he has to have months of physiotherapy on top of that.
We were really really lucky because we qualified for assistance, so we only had to pay $600 of it – otherwise we’d have been paying the hospital for years.
I can relate. I’m so tired of getting bills from my son’s birth and related hospital stay in May. The hospital has been so hard to work with on getting the bills processed to a third-party I am using for negotiating them down. As long as I make payments on the bills, they can’t do anything 🙂 So they will get payments until it is paid off.
Well I don’t have any unpaid bills..that I know of, unless they decide to send me a sneaky one in a few more weeks.
This is just upsetting because I thought I was done with all the bills already.
@ BBZ
Lucky you to get the financial assistance…but I don’t have that.
@ Jessica
I am trying to get something like that for my mother’s bills.
The sit I used for negotiating my bills was this:
http://maternityadvantage.com/home.asp They might know some non-maternity places for negotiating.
I am mostly pleased with them. Although I really have to stay on top of hospital, labs, etc submitting the correct forms. I also discovered I could have just as easily negotiated out-of-pocket discounts for some of the bills. The hospital has been so difficult even the day after my son was born. I kept on telling them you will get your money. Hope you are able to find a way to negotiate.
I had a similar situation when I had surgery on my left shoulder a few years back. After being under the impression I had paid all the bills, I still received another one a year later which was a shock. That’s smart how you spoke to the hospital to set up a payment plan. Being proactive rather than asking them not to screw you in the end was great planning. Hopefully you can sort it out.
Craig
Hospital bills and the like are so darn expensive, it’s beyond silly at times. I’ve seen bills, just for the Dr. to come in the room and talk to you for like 2 minutes, that are over $300!
Hopefully this will be the end of your unexpected bills!
@ Shawn
That actually happened on one bill that my mother had. She got billed $200 for ‘physician consultation’ but told me the doctor popped his head in the door and said he was looking at her test results. He spent maybe 5 minutes and did not even enter the room, much less examine her…but she got billed for that.
They are disputing it right now.
@ Craig
Sorry to hear about your bill one year later…I hope this does not happen to me, but with this one seven months later it makes me wonder.
And it is soooooooooooooo hard to get the hospital to send you a detailed bill. Ugh.
I guess I’m not up on your situation here but do you have insurance? Did they not cover the anesthesia? Dealing with bills and insurance is such a pain but hopefully it will all lead to a resolution quickly. Good luck!
Jerry
@ Jerry
Yes I have insurance…this is after I guess.
I can relate. I’m so tired of getting bills from my son’s birth and related hospital stay in May.
Hospital bills are really expensive despite the fact that you have insurance. It can even used up all of your life savings. However, just look at the bright side, the surgery went well and the doctor’s did their job in whatever the purpose of your surgery.