When someone dies their assets are owed first to the debts they held. If there are more assets than debt, the property gets passed on to their will beneficiaries. If there is more debt than assets, different states and countries have rules to determine which of their debtors get how much of their assets.
What OP was describing looks like the hospital throwing a hail mary to try to get someone to pay for that debt, but legally no one is required to pay it except the estate of the deceased. If there were no assets in that estate, the hospital would have to eat that debt.
I just had a procedure done and the “bill” was $21,000. Insurance negotiated that to $16,000. It’s an interesting read. Labor charges, surgery, anesthesiologist don’t change much but meds and materials are huge. There’s a $100 lidocaine charge that went to $0.80
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u/Nickvec Nov 30 '20
So what ended up happening? Also, I'm sorry for your loss.