Hospital Victims Site

[Sophia3]

http://www.hospitalvictims.com/index.asp

I know some here have no insurance or are in dangerous of losing it...or may have family members in such situations. My room mate sells insurance and found this for me.

We compared the hospital where I had my surgery to Johns Hopkins...my hospital charges 290 PERCENT MORE than they do??? The mark up is astronomical.

I am OUTRAGED at my "23 hr" iin hospital bill, My mom was IN this hospital 24/7 last summer for 8 days and her bill was $6000 less.

So if you know somebody who has no insurance and is fearful of how to fight back over charges I am posting this site.

Though Medicare is payiing some of mine and then the hospital WRITES OFF some of the bill, people with NO INSURANCE are stuck with the ENTIRE BILL. They get NO BREAK and can owe for years.

Some of you have the money to pay out of pocket to get certain ANS testing done. You can still find out the charges of where you may be headed or what to expect on said bill.

[Rachel]

Some hospitals have patient financial assistance programs.

I do not have insurance, but recently had to have an MRI and blood work done. It was very important that they be done as soon as possible. The hospital had a financial assistance application that I filled out at the time of my tests. The bills totaled over $5,000 (and I couldn't afford a penny of it). But I was approved at 100% for assistance and didn't have to pay anything! My bill was covered by donations of doctors and employees of the hospital, and people in the community. What a blessing!!!

I would not have known about this service if someone hadn't told me. Anyway, check with your local hospital. Some of them do have good programs to assist those unable to pay their medical bills.

Rachel

[Sophia3]

thanks, I am using financial assistance programs but also, some people with not so low of income can still get STUNG if they find themselves between jobs and no insurance...this site gives you tools to investigate and make arguments to have your "mark down" made smaller.

THANK GOODNESS for the financial assitance applications though it varies from hospitals...I had a CT scan that was written off but the hospital where I had surgery is not as generous.

No wonder, they are one of the most PRICEY hospitals in the country.

[MightyMouse]

Hospital assistance is really rarely given to folks who have no insurance or are under insured, like I was . I was offered NONE despite filling out the paperwork and mulitple follow up phone calls begging when I was out of work for a year. I was only partially covered for emergency surgery for a broken spinal graft; I was out of network and out of state... I made less than 4000 for the year in disabillity payments, and that was actually MORE than my cobra payments for 457$ a month for the year (So 5484 to stay insured)...

so with less than nothing, I got NO assistance and lots of threats to ruin my credit forever. I had no savings; I had used all of it to pay our mortgage, and for my prescriptions by the end of the 3rd month out of work. Teri paid for everything else for that year...and we went thousands upon thousands into debt on credit cards in order to keep our car insurance, keep food on the table, pay the electric and gas bills, etc... It's been more than 4 years and the bills from that hospital are still coming ever month.

What really peeved me was that I was in the hospital a few months earlier (same one), and at that point they were IN my network... and my bill was tens of thousands less for the same type of services.

At this point, the unnamed hospital gets a small check from me each month. As long as I'm paying something, they can't report me to credit reporting agencies... And after the way they treated me with regard to billing, I couldn't care less if I take the rest of my life to pay them. One of their bill collectors told me over the phone that I should call my relatives and ask them for a loan so I could pay the hospital! I started crying hysterically b/c I'm not really close with my family, and even if I was, they don't have money to share. On tough months, the hospital might get as little as five bucks. On better months I may send as much as 150$, but I figure I'm being more generous toward paying them then they were with considering my situation of being underinsured.

Sorry for the rant, but I get really upset about the fact that I kept myself insured and tried to "do the right thing" and instead go really, really deep in debt and got no mercy from the system for my effort.

nina

[morgan617]

We have a hospital here that now calls to "verify our address and see if we have sent a check" before we even get a bill!!!

I told the last person, if they ever pulled a stunt like that with me again, credit be danged, they would never see a cent from me.

The very first they do, even if your dead, is verify your address and insurance......what a flimsy crock...

[Sophia3]

Many moons ago..I went to set up small bill payment at a hospital and the VERY SNOTTY billing person said I had to send in X amount..I said some months I might only send int $10 as I was making payments out to many people. She said I would HAVE to pay a percentage. TEN dollars would NOT SUFFICE.

Well, I got off the phone..called the main desk..asked the name of the CEO..sent him a certified letter and he said to pay off whatever I could in whatever amount I could. The girl was WRONG.

THEN, he said if I could pay off the deal in one LUMP SUM.... he would give me 20 percent discount?

DUH...if I had THAT kind of money sitting around...payments wouldn't be an issue. I wish he would've given the discount AND the low payments but I took what I could get..this was 20 years ago. Now I would be more forceful as my situation is not as good as back then.

[Jacquie802]

The hospitals around here will pay for the use of their medical equipment, but DO NOT cover the doctors fees...i.e. EKG interpretation, etc.

[dizzygirl]

lord i cant stand insurance companies and the likes of all that crud!! my mom once get injured pretty bad..(requiring like 43 stitches inside and out) and she was bleeeding very badly.. my dad carried into a hospital triage.. and they seen her bleeding.. first thing they asked her or my dad was if she had insurance..

well when they said no.. they flat out refused to treat my mmom!! next hospital.. they did treat her.. but it so inraging how "people" will put a dollar sign before before the health and welfare of a human being..

thanks for posting tis link sophia..im sure that it can help some folks..

about hospital asssitance.. GRRRRRRRRR.. i can think of one particular hospital that are greedy little gremlins...

[MightyMouse]

Jacquie, I'm aware that the hospital is not the one responsible for other charges, like my surgeon. My surgeon dropped all his charges b/c he knew of my financial situation. What was left over, was a huge bill directly from the hospital, and a few thousand in charges from other doctors (radiology, cardiology, pulmonology).

Sophia, they also tried the "you must pay X amount". I said I don't have "x" amount to give you. When they started to get really rude, I basically said, "go ahead and send me to collections because you can't squeeze money from nothing, and you are not the only medical bill coming". I also told the lady, "listen, I had a broken neck--when I was having emergency surgery, I wasn't able to worry about what was covered by insurance and what wasn't." That shut most of them up.

Nina