Giantaxe

I offered to pay and the doctor declined to accept payment. He knew full well I wasn't habitually resident in the UK as we had a chat about what emigrating and living in San Francisco was like. My take it was simply too much trouble for them to deal with someone paying, but legally I should have been charged.

Giantaxe

Then why is inability to pay medical bills the most common reason for people to declare bankruptcy? Hospitals do routinely write off bills, but usually only for people without enough income to pay from or assets to liquidate.

Fish n Chips 56

Thanks Giantaxe, I thought that might be the case, That happened to me too, I am British, I left the UK when I was 20 but sound American, I didn't have my NI number or card so I was told they would bill me, I gave them my local UK address and expected a bill but never received one.

I'm not saying all Americans should expect to be seen for free, Not at all, but I was pushing the issue of money not being the number one issue in the UK, wouldn't it be nice if it was like that here in America, for example, when I went to the Emergency room with a kidney stone problem, it would have been nice if they would take care of me and my pain sooner than me having to wait in line to fill out paper work as per usual.

Ray

Six pages of twaddle by an idiot OP ...

Please try to do better .. I am a sick msn ..

chartreuse

You are a sick Internet platform operated by a large software conglomerate?

Duncan Roberts

They will pursue medical bills and they will set the big boys on you. Every billing software package has a feature to set up payment letters. The nicer "you owe us this much, pay buy X," the not so nice "you haven't paid, this is your last warning," and the not at all nice "you haven't paid, we just sent your account to a collections agency." Most will have contracts with various collection agencies to buy the debt at a certain amount on the dollar and when it hits a pre-defined date a file is electronically sent to a collections agency with all the needed info to see if they want it or not. More often than not they want it.

Ozone Park

They don't typically take people to court for medical bills.

Duncan Roberts

No, but depending on the size of the bill they will. Plus, I think I would rather go to court compared to being on the hook to a debt collector. I think it will happen more since the credit crunch is starting to hit the healthcare industry.

Giantaxe

Stop and think about this for a moment. Why do you think so many people file for bankruptcy because of inability to pay medical bills? Do you really think they'd do so if they weren't being sued for non-payment?

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/hea...cal_bills.html

Ozone Park

Because they don't like the constant phone calls and threatening letters. Get caller I.D. and throw the letters out love

Jerseygirl

If that's true why do we pay for health insurance and copays? Why don't we all go to the doctor's/hospital...get treatment and refuse to pay?

Giantaxe

My doctor's billing service has certainly got more aggressive about chasing up copayments, even for trivial balances under $20. I now get automated messages (to a cell phone number I thought I was providing so my doctor could contact me about medical matters...) asking for payment. I even got a threat to take a $15 copayment to a debt-collector!

Englishtart

I think they are all getting more aggressive about collecting on unpaid bills...We actually got a letter this week from an eye clinic that hubby had been too over 9 months ago, we thought the insurance covered the 'special' eye drops they insisted hubby use, but obviously not. This bill had a date issued of August 09, but we had heard nothing about owing it until this week! The bill is for over $80, they even included a late fee!

Giantaxe

Insurance companies also can go back and "unpay" bills believe it or not. They decided - after a year - that a bill they'd paid for a daughter they shouldn't have. Medical facility says their contract with the insurance company permits this, so she got billed over a year after service, including the ubiquitous "late fee". She declined to pay and they did eventually write off the charge.

Englishtart

Seems pretty stupid to me, but then it's not the silliest thing I have heard! I called the vision place yesterday and got an attitude from the receptionist! She did eventually take off the late fee, IF I paid the bill by credit card over the phone that minute!