Comment by mothballed
6 hours ago
I don't think the hospital expects to actually ever get paid what they bill out, or anything at all, if it's not paid onsite or by insurance.
6 hours ago
I don't think the hospital expects to actually ever get paid what they bill out, or anything at all, if it's not paid onsite or by insurance.
>> I don't think the hospital expects to actually ever get paid what they bill out
OH YES THEY ABSOLUTELY DO!
When I was in-between jobs I had a medical emergency and I was on the ACA around the first year it was offered. I was billed above medicare rates so I was on the hook for ~40k after out of pocket max. They told me this limit is what insurance has to cover but hospitals can still bill above it. First they told me they could work on the prices and asked for my last 5 years tax returns. When they saw that I had dividend payments they said they couldn't help me and I owed them the $40k. I think that was the problem because even though I wasn't working in their mind if I had investments then technically I was not in need so they set up four-year payment plan and paid every penny with no cost reduction.
I probably did something wrong but to this day I didn't know what I would have done differently. The only people I could talk to were the hospital and they only cared about the hospital.
This is called "balance billing" and the No Surprises Act usually prevents it, especially in emergency cases.
https://www.healthinsurance.org/glossary/no-surprises-act/
This happened in 2013, 9 years before the Act. Hopefully the Act prevents this kind of stuff. The medicare limit is what really confused me. If there is a limit insurance will cover up to, then how is it possible to exceed that limit?
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I really don't believe you, but according to HN, I am supposed to trust in good faith you aren't lying.
Maybe you just don't have any assets or make very little money. I have equity and cannot just toss it to a collection agency and hope they forget. I also play by the rules, silly, I know, but I don't want to risk getting fucked some other way later in life.
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