So here it goes: My mom went to visit my sister who does foster care for dogs until get adopted. My 70 year old mother was walking a pit bull on a leash when it saw a rabbit and ran after it. My mom didn't let go of the leash and she got pulled down and broke her elbow. She had to get plates and screws put in her elbow and arm.
Anyway, soon after she had her emergency room visit, surgeries, outpatient care etc. they got the bill. I don't know the total amount but it said that they had to personally pay $15,000.
My mom has Kaiser Perminante health insurance through the state of Colorado. She also has medicare. I looked up her insurance plan and it says that the maximum yearly out of pocket expense should be $3000.
Instead of calling the insurance company to ask questions about the bill or anything like that, they took around $25,000 from their IRA and paid the bill. They were charged 35% tax for taking the money out of their IRA so around $10,000 went to taxes and $15,000 went to the insurance company.
I told my mom that this doesn't sound right and they shouldn't take money out of their IRA to pay the bill. She said that she's "Looking into it" They think that they are going to get their money back. I think not.
Does this bill sound right to you? What would have been the correct course of action in this situation? What do you think that they should do know? I wonder why Medicare didn't pay anything.
Edit: They just got a new $6000 bill for a recent hospital stay for my dad and are thinking about paying it the same way.
Submitted August 29, 2018 at 09:33AM by foxtrot666 https://ift.tt/2POtP5D
