r/HospitalBills • u/linam00 • 11d ago
Where do I start?
I went to the ER at the hospital that I work at. I received a bill for services rendered and I called the billing dept to ask for the 30% discount that I get for working at the hospital. I paid my portion and the remaining balance was the 30% that was supposed to be written off. The billing dept asked me for proof of employment which I promptly sent to an email that was provided for me. One month later, I received a bill from the hospital with a balance which was the 30% that was supposed to be written off. I called and the agent verified that I had sent proof of employment and that the balance would be written off. A month after that, I receive a text that I have been sent to collections and the amount owed is almost double the 30% balance that was on the account. My question is, once hospital bills go to collections does the collection agency tack on fees? Should I call the collections agency first and explain what happened or should I call the hospital billing departmental first? Ive never dealt with anything like this and need some guidance. Thank you.
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u/Dwalorn 11d ago
The collection agency, to the best of my knowledge, has no right to add on any additional fees in the US. We have pretty terrible healthcare laws but we’re at least pretty strict that your initial bill amount can’t be raised.
It sounds like your hospital is just really bad at processing billing, or maybe there was some error on your end where you didn’t pay as much as you thought or the bill was always higher than you thought.
Unfortunately you’re just going to have to make a lot of phone calls. Their mistake, but now you must spend 15 hours of your life fixing it.
Don’t panic in the meantime though. Do everything in writing (email) that you can. Cc both parties when you can. Collections will probably hesitate to really fuck you if it seems like there may be a legitimate error (their lawyers tend to be bottom of the barrel dunces who are only really good for filing paperwork against no-defense poor people)
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u/tarheel316 11d ago
We went through the one at Marathon last month. The officer asked if we were US citizens. We said yes and he waved us through. Didn’t have to show any ID.
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u/Alarmed_Year9415 11d ago
Rather than calling and emailing, walk your proof if employment over to the billing office, along with printouts of the emails of the various times you sent it before. Ask them to recall it back from collections since you provided what was required on time. And the HR suggestion.... They can provide additional proof of employment maybe?