Hospital is threatening to sue me.

Well the hospital where I had some surgery done last year has sent my case to an attorny who is threatening to sue me in 30 days unless the outstanding balance is paid in full. I still owe them $343 and I have been paying them every month at least $10. They are not the only ones I owe and my total outstanding medical debt as of right now is probably around $2,500. I am having a hard enough time dealing with everything else right now and now this.
Found out this year that I have bone cancer.
Wife is having a baby any day now.
Still having kidney stones.
Being sued by a hospital.
I am really stressed out right now. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/mad.gif
Thank you for letting me vent. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/blush.gif

They are going to sue you over $343? They spent more than that just sending you the letter from their lawyer...

are they taking you to small claims court? If so then you can go and represent yourself.

Penny wise and pound foolish as management of all kinds typically is.

I'd just call them up and chat with the payment department. If you actually talk to them they will be happy to formalize your payment plan to them. Did you talk to them and arrange to make those $10 payments? or did you just send them $10 in response to their bill for several hundreds? If you talk to them they are usually VERY accommodating for this sort of thing as otherwise they recover nothing. Virtually everyone I know that has ever had a hospital bill has payed it off in little bits, some of them in very little bits.

Monday morning get on the phone and explain what you owe and what you can pay them and they should be happy to get it and call off their legal department.

So dont stress about this!

James S,
I had talked to them around 6 months ago and they agreed that as long as I paid something "even if just $10 a month" that it would be fine. But they have been taking anyone and every one to court lately. Talked to them yesterday and they said "Pay it or get sued".
I would assume it would be small claims court. I got the letter from the attorny last week.
I just dont need the hassle or aggravation of this right now. I am normally very cool and collected but I am getting to the end of my rope. Too much going on for me to handle at one time. I know I must stay calm and collected and think of my family. I just seem to be drowning lately with no life preserver in sight.

Do you Healthcare coverage? An HMO?
If you do call them, you may not owe anything.

I was threatened by a Hospital over my son's bill, get this they sent me a letter stating that I had to pay....$238,000.00 in 30 days or they would seek legal recourse. Yeah that figure is right.

My son's total bill was 1.2 million and we had an HMO who had contracted with that hospital. The HMO paid roughly $990,000 of the 1.2 million. So the hospital thought they would try to get the rest from me. Wrong, when an HMO contracts with a hospital they agree to accept a certain level of payment for every possible charge. They can not come after the insured(me). They can, and did appeal to the HMO for more than they got and were denied...so they thought they would get me. I called the HMO and they put me straight through to the legal department and within 48 hours I had the Adminstrator of the hospital aplogizing to me face to face.

This sort of thing happens quite often, and most people pay because the amount is usually a lot less than the amount in my situation. Most people don't realize that they owe nothing!

Later when my dad got ill and I was taking care of him and his affairs it happened several times and every time I would call the HMO and get the "illegal" bills cancelled.

If you don't have an HMO/Health Insurance then disregard my previous rant. But I would still contact the hospital to see if/what they can do/suggest.

Good Luck and don't let them get to you. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

Beamhead,
Thank you for the post. Unforunatly I do not have health insurance.
I guess it kind of came to a boil this morning with me. I was up all night thinking about it and everything else. When I was not posting on the board for a couple of months I was getting treatment for the cancer. That in itself is stressful enough. I just needed to vent this morning but I probably should have went outside and screamed instead.
This is supposed to be a happy time for me and my wife and I will promise to try to make it as such.
Thanks everyone for listening to my rant and I do feel a little better now. I am blessed with a wonderful family and a roof over my head. I should not get so upset about these other things. I know better than to do that and I will try to stay rational in the future.

LifeNRA,
WE are here for ya man. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grouphug.gif

Hey, I was going to buy another flashlight, maybe another McLux III PD, but I don't need it this month.

So could I offer to send roughly about what I would have paid for that to you to help with the cause?

Don't take offense, I would rather help you and your family than feed my obsession. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

Beamhead,
That is very thoughtful of you and appreciated. No offence taken at all. The people of this board is why I am still here posting. But I would never want to put anyone out because of me. I actually have a L1P on order from 4Sevens so it would hypocrytical of me to ask anyone to help me when I just recently spent $38 on a flashlight myself.
I really do appreciate it more than I can put into words. Thank you all for listening to me this morning and letting me get this off my chest.

LifeNRA,
It is not hypocrytical at all, after all we are "flashaholics". /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif

PM inbound. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

4Sevens has emailed me and offered to refund my money for the L1P and for that I thank him. I did not want to have to ask him to do this so his offer is much appreciated. For what its worth I bought the light before I got the letter threatening to sue me.

[ QUOTE ]
LifeNRA said:
4Sevens has emailed me and offered to refund my money for the L1P and for that I thank him. I did not want to have to ask him to do this so his offer is much appreciated. For what its worth I bought the light before I got the letter threatening to sue me.

[/ QUOTE ]

Refund processed!

BTW, I'm still going to ship a fenix to you!

Good luck with your treatments and to your newborn!
/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

4sevens,
Somehow I knew you would do that! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/happy14.gif

4sevens and Beamhead,
I dont know what to say expect THANK YOU!! I have not cried since my dad died but I am not ashamed at all to admit that I am crying now. My wife is crying also by the way. She says to tell you guys that she hopes God blesses you all.
I have one other person I really need to thank.
McGizmo and I had an email conversation when he was talking about leaving CPF. Don sent me an Aleph 3 so I could "see some of his work" as he put it. Thank you Don so much and the only reason I did not gives thanks on the board was because I did not think you wanted the attention.

Thank you all so much for making this morning worth getting up for. I and my wife are truely speachless. May God bless you all.

God bless you and now you are making me tear up. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/blush.gif

There are good folks here that will help if they can. Like the TV says every little bit helps. If they were cashing the checks all along for $10.00 then keep sending them 10.00
bucks you have not defaulted AFAIK. Feel free to PM me if you want.
Topper /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

Topper,
Thanks and yes there are some great people here. I have never seen another message board that can compare to this one in terms of genuine kindness and friendship. Even when I was not posting I was still reading some days and trying to stay caught up.
Everything just seemed to snowball out of control before I knew it. Everything just seemed to happen so fast that it took me a while to come to terms with it.
Prayers are always welcome and I thank everyone for their encouragement and support.
Jeff

FWIW When my first son was born we had no health ins. and my wife ended up having a c-section. I paid $10 month till he was 16 years old and finally is now free and clear. Every so often I got a letter requesting payment in full or else! I called and talked to someone in the billing department when this happened and they took care of it. Just make sure to keep up with the monthly payments. God Bless, Frank

FRANKVZ,
I understand what you are saying and I did the same thing. I talked to the hospital last year and they said "no problem" as long as I paid something.
I got the letter from a real Lawyer's office and I called them, both the hospital and the Lawyer's office. They both said it was real and that I would be served if the bill was not paid in full within 30 days.
I have no idea why they would come after me so strong for that amount but they did. When I talked to the lady at the Hospital she said that my debt had been outstanding too long, nearly a year, and she would not go into anymore detail. I asked her if this was standard policy and she said it was a case by case bases. I showed her proof that I had been making regular payments. I tried everything to explain to her about my other health issues and other health related depts that I have. I even showed her my other medical bills. I told her that my wife was expecting any time and had been put on bed rest for the last 3-4 weeks. Nothing seemed to make a dent at all with her.
I understand that I owe the money but you cant get blood out of turnip. I would just like to get them paid off and be done with them. The whole thing has just upset me so bad that I cannot sleep at night.

Jeff,

I just got your PM asking about me, and now I read this about you. Geez man, you have it far worse than I do. Politically, I lean to the right, but it is this kind of health trouble that makes me want some kind of social medicine. We have socialized fire and rescue services, but not health. There has got to be a way to solve this problem. It really grieves me for people in your situation.

I pray that God intervines to ease your pain and suffering, and to take away your worry.

God bless you , Jeff!

Chuck

Ray started a little "thing" for LifeNRA here..

Our members rock.

man this stinks nra i hope ya get it sorted and get better