So I’ll try to keep this brief and concise. I just received these bills not 20 minutes ago and am still feeling anxious after seeing them, so please bare with me if I don’t make sense at any point here. For background, I’m living in CA, USA.
So 3 months ago I had started to feel some chest pains at work, and a slight pain in my left arm. Of course this jumped out to me as a heart attack because those are the symptoms you always hear about on TV. I had my boss drive me to the ER, they did their tests, and I paid what I assumed was my copay of $100. Thankfully it turned out to be simple chest wall pains. I was totally fine, they gave me a prescription for a mild muscle relaxer and sent me on my way.
The next day the same thing happened and I worried more than I should have and thought, “What if they got it wrong?” So I went back to the ER only to go through the same exact process and be told that it was in fact just chest wall pain. Paid another $100, drove home, and decided to just trust that things were ok.
A couple of months pass and I get a bill that says “final notice” for a total of $46.59 that appears to be from a collections agency. I call and ask what this was about and it appeared to be for my ER visit again. And the lady informed me that there was another account under my name, which made sense if it was for the ER visit because I went twice. But I hadn’t gotten any bills from them prior to this so I don’t know how it went straight to a final notice. But whatever, I wanted to put it behind me. So I paid them. Done and done, we’re paid off.
Fast forward to today. I open my mail box and see two letters from the hospital. Rip them open and to my surprise I’m being billed AGAIN for $456.13 for the first visit and $458.30 for the second one. And they both say they’re past due, due now. Yet these are the first bills of their kind (these are directly from the hospital, no collections) and I’m freaking out. Is this normal for ER visits? Is this some sort of mistake? Can you guys give me any clarification?
I have the money to pay most of it saved up right now. But that’s gonna deplete my Christmas and emergency funds. This would be considered an emergency, so it’s warranted. But nevertheless, I’m freaking out here. Any advice you guys can give me?
Submitted November 29, 2019 at 07:54PM by Rybur525 https://ift.tt/35NB8BT
