In 2003 I had to go to the emergency room w/o insurance in NJ. I was told that the Charity Care program ofthe hopital would cover the treatement, and my income was well below the limits. I turned in the paperwork, and thought it was done. They lost the paperwork. I sent it again, having movved from antoher state. never heard from them again. now, I have 2 problems: The Radiologist and the physicians have sent notices, as the Charity Care does not cover their fees, only hospital fees. Radiologist want $51 and the Physicians want about $400. See my circumstances below, I don;t have either. 2nd, The hospital is now threatening judgement for over $1K, (original bill was $675). When the hospital's CA called last week, they did forget to give the mini-miranda, I remember that. What can I do? Should I request validation? How do I document a phone conversation in which they missed the mini miranda? I have called the charity care office again demanding answers. I do not have all my old paperwork for that time period but can re-submit most of it (and can include tax returns if necessary) I am self employed raising a family of 4 (Child #3 due in August) on about $1000. Self employed, so no wages to garnish and no tax refund really to seize, only car is paid off, and rent is $495 a month. Do I have anything to fear them seizing, worst case scenario?
did you ever follow up with them to see if it was approved for payment? did you get anything in writing that they would pay it? i've read your post several times and go back and forth on how to respond...part of me says to fight with this charity to pay their portion and negotiate the rest and the other part of me says that you should have followed up...trust me, i recently fought my husbands hospial bill that was supposed to be covered under insurance but wasn't. i too did not follow up and six months later the hospital sued me (i settled out of court and went through the state health care board and eventually was reimbursed). you can request validation and follow the "rules" of validation etc, however, IMO your best bet is usually what takes the least amount of time, money and effort. work with the charity to pay their portion, settle on the remainder and pay what you can - even if its $5 per month. my grandmother paid on my grandfathers funeral costs of $20 per month for many many years because he didn't have enough life insurance. but she paid faithfully and on time every month. (i should add that i retyped this about 5 times because it kept sounding "tough love-ish")
I would probably do the following, send a validation letter to the CA, at the same time I would send a dispute of the charges to the hospital, that this was not your responsibility, and that you had repeatedly provided to them the paperwork neccessary for their Charity Care program. Now, you want to send everything certified, and you want to keep sending something regularly until they do respond in writing; yes it is a pain, but if they do try to sue you, you want to have a paper trail showing that it was not you who dropped the ball. You may have a hard time to explain why you hadn't followed up before they assigned a CA, but if you explain it that since you didn't hear from them, you presumed under a good faith belief that the hospital had processed the Charity Care forms, and that everything was taken care of.
