I got the first phone call yesterday
The one from the business office of the first doctor I went to (that did such a pathetic job with the testing that it all had to be redone).
So here's the conversation:
Office: You know you have a bill of $720.
Me: Yes, and I've been sending you a $10 check monthly.
Office: I see that on the records, but we like to have these amounts paid off within 90 days, or they want us to turn them over to collections.
Me: Well, I'd like that too, but I'm not able to do that (and I'm thinking "you can't get blood out of a turnip!")
Office: Could you just put it on a credit card?
Me: No, I don't even have a credit card.
Office: Could you pay $100 a month.
Me: No, I can't do that, we live on a fixed income and I have other medical bills from just having surgery.
Office: Well, could you manage $25?
Me: Maybe, it depends on what the rest of the bills from the surgery are when they arrive.
Office: Let me send you some paperwork on our financing plans.
Me: Ok
This should be interesting, we'll see what her "paperwork" looks like (oh and just as a side note, for the first procedure I have a $395 bill to the new doctor, and before the insurance pays the little it will pay, the bill for the actual surgery is $3500 just to the doctor)
Even if the Congress does the right thing and actually makes the changes we need, it will not help any for this situation.
Its going to be a long difficult struggle to get all of this paid off --- knowing what I know now I should have just ignored the problem
2 comments:
You bring up the solution many of us are forced to decide on: just ignore the problem.
I get angrier by the day. As I send off my $50 checks (to offices that call and ask for more per month) we ignore the toothaches, the suspicious moles, the swelling ankles, the blurring vision . . . we can't afford to add more payments!
Then I hear comments about irresponsible people who don't go in for regular checkups. Does anybody who actually goes for regular checkups even know how much they cost???
I hope something happens soon to change the situation, even though it won't help me. I'm holding out for medicare. At least, I hope I hold out long enough for medicare to kick in!
Good luck. They'd get less from a bill collector than from you paying off the full amount as you can, and it would be a whole lot less angst.
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