Medical Debt

[Sarah'sMomfrom PA]

A friend of mine asked me this and I didn't honestly know the answer so I figured that I would ask the #1 advice place I always start with. Her husband is being treated for cancer and she knows that insurance won't cover everything so there will probably be a hefty balance. If she makes an agreement to pay $200.00 a month towards this medical debt, can they ding her credit/credit report since she is sincerely making an effort to pay but that is all that she can afford with their Social Security. Any advice will be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

 

[tvguy]

A friend of mine asked me this and I didn't honestly know the answer so I figured that I would ask the #1 advice place I always start with. Her husband is being treated for cancer and she knows that insurance won't cover everything so there will probably be a hefty balance. If she makes an agreement to pay $200.00 a month towards this medical debt, can they ding her credit/credit report since she is sincerely making an effort to pay but that is all that she can afford with their Social Security. Any advice will be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

The bills from my Doctors always show an option to make payments. I would suspect it would have an impact on her credit/credit score because it is an outstanding debt, just like if they had gone out and bought a car and took out a loan. But if she keeps up on the payments it should n't "ding" her credit as in a past due debt, but all debt will lower your credit score.

 

[LYSE]

If it's an agreed upon payment plan it generally stays off your credit unless it's in collections.

I pretty much always pay via payment plan because it's a free 0 percent loan..no need to part with the money before you have to.

 

[EACarlson]

Medical providers themselves rarely put anything on credit reports, it's only once it gets turned over to a collections agency that it would be reported. Medical debts have to be 180 days delinquent before they can be reported. If your friend is making payments to the provider as agreed upon, they are not delinquent, let alone by 180 days.

 

[barkley]

have her check into any financial assistance programs the hospitals/medical groups might have available before she agrees to any payment plan. if social security is their only source of income it's probably low enough that these programs can qualify them for upwards of a 100% write off of many of their medical services (these can apply to co-pays and deductibles depending on the individual programs). as an example-

one of our local major groups (not religiously affiliated, a large scale provider/hospital/clinical network)-household of 2 can make up to just shy of $53,000 per year for 100% assistance on their costs after insurance is billed , with a sliding scale that caps to about $87,000 per year max income to qualify for 70% assistance,

another means of offsetting costs is to have her husband apply for medicaid. it is possible to have both medicare and medicaid at the same time and end up with an overall lower out of pocket obligation.

 

[disney212]

Make sure she gets a written agreement with the providers. We unfortunately didn't and after 12 months of payments (we were paying $1700 a month) we came home to a notice of lien on our home as the debt was over a year old. We hired a lawyer but no luck as we didn't have a formal agreement. Here it only shows total due. It was a nightmare. It was a long time ago but could still happen.

 

[DisneyHardin]

If she just makes payments without an agreed upon payment plan, they will likely still send her to collections. The first time we had a large medical bill, I had heard that hospitals were very generous with letting you pay down over time, so I started paying $100/month toward the bill. About 4 months in, we got a call from the hospital billing department that our account was getting ready to go to collections. I was surprised and said I had been paying on it. The lady was super nice and explained that you have to actually set up a payment plan and not just pay on the bill. So, she set it up for $100/month and then all was fine.

 

[Sarah'sMomfrom PA]

Someone sent me a conversation on this topic and I honestly don't know how to respond to it. I started a new conversation but it doesn't look like I even sent it? Help!

 

[DisneyHardin]

Someone sent me a conversation on this topic and I honestly don't know how to respond to it. I started a new conversation but it doesn't look like I even sent it? Help!

I don't really understand what you are asking?

 

[lanejudy]

Someone sent me a conversation on this topic and I honestly don't know how to respond to it. I started a new conversation but it doesn't look like I even sent it? Help!

A "conversation" is a private message, accessed by the little envelop icon in the blue bar above on the upper right by your username. You reply by typing your answer in the box, just like you would for a post here on a thread, and click the "Post Reply" button. If you did reply, you should see your reply below the original conversation message you received. It becomes a private thread. It won't be seen out here on the main forums.

If you happened to "Start a new conversation" instead of replying, you should see that in a list of your conversations. Click the envelop and then click "Show all..."

 

[willowsnn3]

Check for some financial assistance. A few years ago when my older sister was diagnosed with breast cancer, she was automatically eligible for medicaid assistance. She was retired & only had her social security check as income.

 

[kydisneyfans]

My son had a $2,000 Emergency room bill-first bill arrived in October. He paid $250 in Oct, $250 in Nov, $500 in Dec, went to pay $500 more in Jan and found the bill went to collections. No call, no correspondence, nothing. I received a significant medical bill in the mail yesterday-pay by date was today. It didn't get paid. One would think providers would want to work with patients to get the bills paid instead of doing the above.

 

[jimmymc]

This would be arranged through the hospital. They will send your friend a bill for whatever isn't covered, and will include contact info on how to set up a payment plan.

If they are only living off social security and retirement savings, there should definitely be some assistance through medicare or state programs. It will probably be a lot of research but there are steps to make it work.

 

[littlelulu33]

Things may vary from state to state and this was several years ago, but I did medical billing/collections for a office in Michigan and I was not legally allowed to send them to collections as long as they made monthly payments even if it was only $1 per month. We also had to send 3 letters before they went to collections.

 

[lockets]

I was just sent to collections for a medical bill they've been sending to the wrong address. They never even placed one phone call to me, nor collection letters, nor texts, nor emails. Nothing. I was able to find all the documents online eventually. Just invoices sent to wrong address and a note on the invoice saying it will go to collections. SMH.

I had a job collecting money years ago for a blue chip company (not a collections agency). We always courtesy called people trying to collect the debt, plus letters, plus billing statements, plus eventual account suspension that resulted in them typically calling us. It was a full court press!

On a related note, I know someone in Florida who once told me it's illegal for medical debt to hit someone's credit report. Not sure if that's true? I'm guessing in that instance it's still sent to a collector, but perhaps not reported?

 

[Anthony1971]

In many states it is illegal to send to collections so long as you are paying on the bill. That does not mean that a hospital does not have thier own collections department but that is not the same as the debt being reported as in default to a credit agency. That does not mean it will not be reported to a credit agency as debit as you are rated on X dollars you can pay when you have that amount outstanding it will be harder to get approved for more debit like a credit card or loan however in most cases it will just lower the amount you are approved for and the rate you will pay for a loan or credit card if you finance.

 

[a1tinkfans]

So sorry to hear that ur friend is dealing with a cancer situation and will have to deal with debt as a result. Please tell her to speak with hospital staff about likelihood of the out of pocket. They may work with her and offer up options/places that perhaps can help her. Prayers for an Uneventful Full recovery!

 

[EACarlson]

On a related note, I know someone in Florida who once told me it's illegal for medical debt to hit someone's credit report. Not sure if that's true? I'm guessing in that instance it's still sent to a collector, but perhaps not reported?

It's difficult to do without violating HIPAA, if you google the HIPAA method of dealing with medical collections there is a lot of information out there. It can be done, but most of us know collections agencies are not the most strict in following the rules.

 

[DisneyTexan]

It's difficult to do without violating HIPAA, if you google the HIPAA method of dealing with medical collections there is a lot of information out there. It can be done, but most of us know collections agencies are not the most strict in following the rules.

The HIPAA rules are that medical debts can only be reported as "medical." At one time the account name would possibly disclose the type of doctor, for example if the medical practice was named "New York Oncology."

Medical debts have a 180 day grace period before they are shown on the credit report and start to impact the FICO score.