Does anyone have an example of a letter to send asking for a discount on a medical bill? The bills are from 1997 - 2001. Also, does anyone have any idea how to handle a situation with ER DR's bills all coming from the same billing service? I am not sure they will take a discount, but I don't know how to contact the ER Dr's personally. THANKS!
Are you wanting to settle with the OC for less than the full amount? Do you mean the different doctors that saw you in the ER are using the same billing service? For settlement purposes, that would not matter if you are dealing with the OC. If you trying to negotiate with the billing service (which I do not know if that is possible) you might as well negotiate them all in one communication (ie phone call, letter) as they may pull up all the bills when they do a search under you ssn. Tell them how much you have available to pay them, they can divide and allocate however they want.
Yes, I need to settle for less than the full amount. I was not insured. Do you have any idea how to figure an amount? I know insurance usually has discounted amounts and "usual and customary" fees that the hospitals agree to. What terminology do I need to use in the letters?
Don't try to use any terminology. Tell them what you can pay, ask them if they can they accept as payment and consider it paid with no balance remaining.
I'm afraid they won't accept an offer, because it is a billing service. I am going to try to find some way to contact the Dr.s personally. Thanks!!!
There was a thread on here regarding a similar issue recently. The thread talked about the difference between the usual and customary charges (what the insurance companies pay) and the inflated prices that uninsured people pay. The thread talked about a site that listed the usual and customary charges for each service and this is all that you should have to pay. I am going to do a research Monday to see if I can find this thread, if I find it, I'll post it here. Good Luck! Sirrowan
Thank you, Sirrowan. I really appreciate that! I don't think I should have to pay full price because I had no insurance.
Sirrowan, Any chance you had an opportunity to look this up? I keep trying here and on the web and I am having no luck. Thanks for the offer, either way
Sorry, I still don't know how to use this site that well (translation=laziness for me!). Try this tread "Medical Collections Discussion", originated by "Butch". Gooooooood info. Good Luck! Sirrowan
Working on a similar issue as we speak so I'l let you know what I find out. I'm trying to find out what usual and customary is for my city and state. My sister is a physician and she says that she has patients who never pay and they come back again and again and her office treats them. They don't want to deal with a lawsuit. I have had some physicians in the past who just write it off. The one guy never put it into collections and never on the report. Funny think is he is the first one I want to pay.
Thanks for the replies. I am nervous about trying this because I can't afford to pay it all. We have a large family and there are several bills. I tried a few years ago - I am not kidding - for about a year and a half - to get a hospital to work with me because we had several accounts. Hospitals in other cities had auytomatically combined accounts for us in the past. But this hospital refused to combine, and expected me to make monthly payments on 10 accounts!!They were horrible. Finally, the collection supervisor at the hospital called me names and said horrible things to me, so I never paid those bills!! Some of these bills are with the same hospital and their er physicians. They have turned them in to collection. Sorry about ranting! It still upsets me! I'm just going to have to pray for the best when I mail off the letters.
