I am a Dutch guy (late twenties), living in the USA, Oklahoma, and this small PSA is for those with (recent) medical bills. Please excuse me if my English terms aren't up to par!
I've always read the advice to contact your medical provider to ask for financial assistance, and especially if it's regarding a bigger provider like a hospital.
I never had use for that info until about 7 months ago when I got sick and was sent to the ER. I ended up there a second time a month later. I'll spare you the details, but I am mostly recovered and doing better.
As a Dutch guy, it's also my first time facing the USA health care system. My deductible is $7500. In this case it didn't even matter because it turned out the hospital I went to is out of my network, so the amount I was owed ($4000) wasn't even going to be taken off my deductible.
I had a ton of other bills from doctor visits and medication and what else, and I couldn't work at the time and hadn't been able to a few months before the ER visits, so finances were extremely low.
I can go into a bunch of other details but I'll spare you those too, but it turned out that we (me and my wife) were just outside of being eligible for charity/financial assistance from the hospital according to their rules. We made a thousand more a year or something, which isn't a lot to begin with. Normally you need to make lower than minimum wage.
But I was like fuck it, and sent in the papers anyway. I sent in every piece of paper they asked for, bank statements, other bills, evidence and organized them, put sticky notes on them, made it look real nice. I then wrote a personal letter explaining my situation and being completely honest. I felt like this was important.
Months went by and I didn't have to pay back during that time as they checked out the papers we sent them, so while we were sure we had to pay back at some point, this pause was welcome because I couldn't work and we had some hefty other bills coming in we could barely keep up with.
Every day I feared the denial would come and we would have to start paying back. Then the letter came and we were approved. Just like that we received a 100% discount on our bill. I called to verify and check. They confirmed it and wished me a good day.
In our current situation 4k is a LOT of money, especially with other medical bills we're paying, and we are so insanely grateful for it. I personally do not take this lightly and it was a huge wake up call.
We had some savings, like 1k, but that wasn't enough even before I had to go to the ER because we had a string of bad luck that drained those savings before it all happened. Now we're finally catching up on our bills and will be able to start saving in about three months again. Plus my health is improving so I will be able to contribute financially as well with work.
Just wanted to make a post to remind people to really just give it a shot, no matter the amount. Before this event I read those things and thought it was very unlikely that hospitals would just absolve amounts like that, and didn't think it would happen to me if it were the case.
It never hurts to try, and there's still decent people out there. Just be honest and upfront and clear with what you're providing in evidence. I don't mind answering questions on the process and what I did in case there are people out there currently dealing with medical bills and applying for financial assistance.
Thanks for reading.
Submitted June 27, 2017 at 07:48PM by imnotlegolas http://ift.tt/2tmd5uv
