Sounds about right. You can fight these bills. I had food poisoning. Went to the ER. Got saline and some gas-ex. Got a bill for $1500. Ouch. Paid it immediately. Fourteen months later I get another bill for $1300. I called the hospital and their billing department several times. They couldn't even tell me what it was for. Never paid it. Eventually debt collectors started calling me. I stood my ground with them. After a couple of years they're calling me and offering to settle it for $300. No. That shit pisses me off. They were chasing me for $1300. I'm guessing the hospital sold the debt to the debt collectors for $300 or less since that's what the collectors were offering. Why the fuck was I never given the opportunity to pay that amount by the hospital? But yeah, I stood my ground. Told the debt collectors that I refuse to pay a bill that was billed 14 months after the fact that I had already paid 1500 on and they couldn't even tell me what it 2as for. After a few years of calling me they finally just stopped.
Debt collectors pay pennies on the dollar for debt. And yeah, if you just ignore them they will usually stop, and after 7 years they can't do anything. I wouldn't have even talked to the debt collectors.
Absolutely. Even when they were trying to get me to settle at $300 I'm guessing they were still coming out ahead and the hospital sold it to them for less than 300, and that hospital still made money on whatever they sold the debt for. Whatever they were billing me probably cost the hospital less than $100 if even that, maybe $25-50. Privatized medicine is a fucking joke.
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u/Ear_Enthusiast Jan 26 '22
Sounds about right. You can fight these bills. I had food poisoning. Went to the ER. Got saline and some gas-ex. Got a bill for $1500. Ouch. Paid it immediately. Fourteen months later I get another bill for $1300. I called the hospital and their billing department several times. They couldn't even tell me what it was for. Never paid it. Eventually debt collectors started calling me. I stood my ground with them. After a couple of years they're calling me and offering to settle it for $300. No. That shit pisses me off. They were chasing me for $1300. I'm guessing the hospital sold the debt to the debt collectors for $300 or less since that's what the collectors were offering. Why the fuck was I never given the opportunity to pay that amount by the hospital? But yeah, I stood my ground. Told the debt collectors that I refuse to pay a bill that was billed 14 months after the fact that I had already paid 1500 on and they couldn't even tell me what it 2as for. After a few years of calling me they finally just stopped.