I ran across this forum today and thought I'd just ask a quick question. My wife had a visit to the ER a while back, and ended up with a huge bill for 30 seconds of doctor visit (The only thing I detest the same as unscrupulous bill collectors is hospitals and their gouging, but there's no point in discussing that here...) Anyway, my wife negotiated to pay the doctor's billing company $25 / month. We paid on-time every single month, until one month they didn't send us a bill. The next month we get a call from UCB that they turned us over to collections. We're continuing to pay the bill (which at this point was $311) at the same rate, but my question is this: Is it legal to do what this billing company did, and how should we handle such things in the future? My wife at the time did not have insurance, so we *have* to make payments (I'm not going to sacrifice my house for a doctor who charges 500% of what he should be for his services), but it's very frustrating when they pull crap like this... Thanks -Doug
Sorry to hear about your situation. I know what you mean about hospitals/doctors and their bills. I just had to take a family member to the hospital while out of the country, and it cost us $80 US for something that would have easily been over $1000 back home. Anyway, my understanding is that making sure medical bills are paid is your responsibility, regardless of whether or not you receive a bill each month or your insurance co. is footing all or part of the bill. In the future, try keeping a spreadsheet or using an online bill pay service to keep track of all your monthly bills and make sure they always get paid.
