discharging medical bills

[monlyba]

I have some medical bills that I will of course be including when I file Ch 7. I am curious about how that will affect life afterward. there are two major health care networks in my area, one is private and one is I guess considered public? not sure exactly how you describe it. anyway, my debts are all from the "private" one from various services, mostly associated with my rough pregnancy, long stay at the hospital for delivery, and the fact that we didn't have health insurance for the baby until she was 4 mths old, so that all added up to several thousand very quickly (even after what my health insurance paid!). so it's the actual network or whatever who I owe the money to, not just the hospital. it's the system itself, and that network/system is the parent so to speak over many doctors and practices in town. so even if some of the costs were technically from a Dr visit... if they work for that network, it's all showing as debts to that health care system. I have no issues switching our primary care physicians to the other show in town, in fact we've already been slowly merging over to offices in their system. however, I hate to limit us if in the future there is something specific we may need and the best place to go might be that private hospital or one of their specialists... if I file BK on services they've provided to me and my daughter in the past, would/could they ever refuse to accept us as patients in the future?

(sorry it takes me so many words to ask a question! I review posts and think geez I'm long-winded, I could have summed that up with less. )

[FreshLikeADaisy]

Monlyba, if you Ch7 a debt to a specific doctor or office, yes, that doctor can refuse to allow you further appointments, or demand payment up front for services rendered. But since you say the money is actually owed to the HMO or PPO or whatever -- am I getting it right? -- or even the hospital and hospital system, that should not be a problem if there's a specific doctor you want to see that does his own billing.

The only real way to tell is to call the provider's office and say, "Look, I had a bankruptcy recently and my debt to the hospital network was discharged in it; is that going to be a problem if I decide to make an appointment with Dr. _____?" That's your only definitive answer, there.

Good luck!!!

[AngelinaCat]

[Flamingo]

First, if you need to file BK you need to file BK and not worry about what will occur afterwards where you may or may not have issues/problems as to future doctors, clinics, ins. companies or hospitals. Secondly, your insurance provider probably will not insure you again at least for quite a while and you will need to obtain another provider and hope there is not a BK question or similar questions to be answered on applying for the insurance. There may not be if it is through an employer but times are changing fast when it comes to credit issues, billings and healthcare. Losses are huge and all involved work to prevent them.

I am curious - did you have a high deductible plan? There is a cap as to what you are required to pay and you would not be responsible for any amount over that cap for your Plan once you hit that amount. Also, if you had insurance at the time of your pregnancy/delivery, why was your daughter without insurance? As soon as a dependent is born, they are automatically included in your coverage - you just need to notify the provider that the child is born and they put the child's name on the policy if it is family coverage. You state "we" in your posting so I am assuming you are married and had family coverage for insurance.

[monlyba]

sorry I didn't check back here any sooner...
well actually the money is for the most part owed to the hospital networks... not the insurance company or the individual Drs. well, some of it might be to a Dr office technically, or a lab or something like that, I can't remember for sure, but I want to say it's all to the network. but what made me a tad worried was that as far as I understand it, all the Drs and medical places in general here really work for one network or the other (there are two big names in town). I guess there are some independent ones out there but then they have to have "rights" or whatever it's called one of the local hospitals if they ever need to work out of one of them for any reason...? I don't know, anyway. guess it's no biggie cause I can just always make sure I (and my daughter) go to the other network which so far I have no history with. I just started seeing a new Dr in that system and of course have all intentions of keeping them paid. so far insurance has covered everything, it's just been basic stuff, no big surgeries or childbirth or anything.

oh, to clarify... when I was pregnant/when my child was born, I was covered under my employer's health insurance plan. I had a deductible but I don't think it had been reached... or actually I think yes it was, but after it's reached they just cover 80%... then there were certain lab things and ultrasounds and other random things they said they don't cover at all...? I think that's what happened to run up the charges. that 20% plus the non-covered things that I needed. and no, they did not automatically add my child to the policy. her father and I are not yet married so I just had a policy for myself through my job and he's got his through his job. I would have had to contact the HR at my employer within 30 days of her birth to add her on, and to add a child to my insurance at work is outrageous, so I thought I was proactive and we bought a policy for her... but they told us it couldn't go into effect for a certain amount of days... 30 or 45? something like that. I can't remember how it worked out but when all was said and done, no insurance company covered anything relating to her as a separate person from the time she was born until that private policy kicked in... so everything that was done for her at the hospital as a newborn and the first few Dr check-ups weren't covered by anyone. *sigh* she's on her dad's health insurance through his job now and it's good, so everything is fine for now, it's just we have those old charges hanging out there (along with everything else!). and it may sound crazy, but I feel more guilty about not paying medical debts than I do about credit cards and things like that... guess just because I know those people worked to help me/her be healthy and I feel bad about not paying them all that they're owed. but... can't really do anything about it without the money to pay them!

so, whatever. it'll be fine, I will just stay away from that network and Drs affiliated with that network as much as possible. thanks everyone!