Help! need advise on medical debt

[jensen]

My son was hospitalized recently for about 3 months. Although we have insurance coverage we found out that we were underinsured. The hospital stay, doctors bills, x-ray etc. are amounting to over $175,000. We have only received the doctor bills so far which amounts to over $10,000. We know from the EOB's that we have received from the insurance company that we will over at least $175,000 or more on the hospital stay bill. The doctor office billing has been giving us threatning calls & are saying that they will hold our son (who is 13 years old) responsible for the bills. We have started paying them $50 a month (that's all we can afford right now)but they are not satisfied & are asking for the payment in full. They have also started sending bills in my sons name & stating that he is financially responsible. My husband is the insured & signed as guarantor. My husband is our sole provider as I have been unable to get back to work due to having gone through breast cancer surgery, chemo. etc. I have had side effects of the medication I had to take & had to stop working but now am not able to find work. We live in an apartment & don't own any property except for a car which was bought in 2001 & has been paid for. We are making monthly payments on another vehicle until 2013. We have around $42,000 in a saving & checking account but I have had to use from that for monthly expenses as my husbands salary is not enough for us to get by. My sons medication costs between $93-$125 for a monthly supply. As there is no generic for his meds. we have to pay 20%of the charge & the insurance pays the balance.He sees his doctor 2 a month with a copay of $40 for each visit. We are not going to be able to pay the hospital bill of over $175,000 & from how they are calling us for the doctor bills I know it will be the same with the hospital billing. We live in CA & I think should qualify for Chap.7 as our yearly income is appx.$42,000. Should we wait to get all the necessary billing from the hospital before filing or can we start the process now? Also, can they take the amount we have in saving & checking? We also want to move to a better apt. but are not sure if we should do this now specially if we are planning to file. After filing are credit will be so bad that there will be no chance for us to move to a better building. We pay off credit cards every month as we don't use them unless we have the money to pay it off in full when the bill comes. Please help. Thank you.

[NoMoreCards]

Don't worry about them holding your son responsible. He is under 18 years old and legally there is nothing they can do to him.

Because you do have insurance, double check to see if there is a maximum "out of pocket" expense. Some insurance policies have that, so look for it.

You also might want to check with the state you live in, to see if you qualify for help with medical expenses.

If all else fails, BK is always a option. Problem is you can not file for BK while sitting on a hunk of cash in savings. Each state has different exemption amounts, so look into what is allowed for your state.

[helpmeout]

I would simply tell the doctor that the next time he threatens to hold your son responsible the following:

What are you? Stupid? He's a minor. You aren't going to legally be able to hold him responsible for anything.

The doctor is trying to intimidate you. Don't let him.

[jensen]

Thanks to both of you. I appreciate your advise. Any advise on what we should do about how to handle our saving/checkin amounts? This is money that we have been saving for our son for college. I don't want to do anything illegal but we are desperate. We could always take it out & pay the hospital & doctor bills but they would still come behind us to get the balance due & after paying if we file we are going to have nothing to get by on. We just don't know what to do.

[helpmeout]

Thanks to both of you. I appreciate your advise. Any advise on what we should do about how to handle our saving/checkin amounts? This is money that we have been saving for our son for college. I don't want to do anything illegal but we are desperate. We could always take it out & pay the hospital & doctor bills but they would still come behind us to get the balance due & after paying if we file we are going to have nothing to get by on. We just don't know what to do.

Right now, you need to concentrate on your son and paying for the medicine that he still needs. How much longer will he need this type of medical care? Because once you file for bankruptcy and get discharged, you won't be able to file again for 8 years. You need to figure out a way to pay for his medicine without the savings if this is long-term. If it isn't, then try to ride it out and when it is over, file then.

[NoMoreCards]

Before you do anything with that money in your accounts, talk to a attorney.

Clearly it will not pay off the medical bills, so that would be pointless. You want to be sure what whatever you do with it the money can be protected. Perhaps it is OK to put that money in a college savings account, but I do not know the laws on this. Most BK attorney's offer free consultations and perhaps they can shed some light on the situation. Many are also good at asset protection and have dealt with this kind of thing before.

Just tread carefully, any financial moves can and will be looked at closely if and when you file BK. So moving the funds to try to "hide" them would result in very bad things.

[blessed]

I'm actually concerned about the money you have in the bank. This was over 16 years ago but my grandfather's accounts were frozen as soon as the hospital where my grandmother died found out he had 122k in the bank. They demanded payment and he (I think stupidly) paid.

You need to ask a lawyer if there is a better way to save it.

And I agree with the others that said to wait until all of this calms down. GL!

[Meatstick]

Jensen you may want to go visit creditboards.com. They have a medical debt forum that is a wealth of infomation. Read up on HIPPA and know your rights. If you can gather proof you can probably sue them in court. I would love to see them try to explain to a judge that a 13 yr old was liable. What you have posted really fkn pisses off and that doctors office billing department should rot in hell for trying to use your child as a pawn.

Whatever the medicine is that he is taking you can try and search the manufacturers website. Many have programs and/or coupon redemption programs. Our son takes Cellcept and Prograf which is very expensive, but there are coupon redemption programs that help ease the pain.

I wish your family good luck and hope you and your son can get healthy quick.

[jensen]

Thank you to all of you for your very helpful advise. I will definetly check out credit.com. We will do anything possible to avoid filing bk. I will also check out the HIPPA rules. I too think it is absurd how they are trying to make our son responsible. I received another bill today saying that I am the responsible party. It seems that they are breaking up the amounts and now have billed all three of us (my husband, son & me) as responsible parties to the bills. My son's illness is long term so we are going to need that money in the bank for him. His illness is such that we don't know what type of future there is going to be for him. Anway thank you again for all your advise. I will keep you'll posted once we are able to talk to an attorney.