Does anyone know how to get help with excessive medical bills?

Question

My friends mother is un-insured and she got sick and was in our local hospital and was air lifted to Erlanger Hospital in Chattanooga, TN. Are there programs or groups that could assist her with excessive medical bills from both hospitals and numerous doctors. She is still un-employed and needs some help. The bills have been turned over to collection.

Answer 1

Usually with medical bills as long as some kind of payment is made collections will leave you alone. It could be 5 or 10 dollars a month. Just pay something and work out some kind of payment plan. The bad thing is it will take a very long time to pay off.

Answer 2

You could hold fund raisers,  Check Medicaid or Medicare depending on her age.

Answer 3

The medical community will harass you no matter how much you pay them every month.  This happened to me in a different situation, I was pregnant at the time, and the medical community harassed me so much even though I was giving them what I could, I had to file bankruptcy.  I hope your mom doesn't have to resort to this, but if she does, she does.  It is not her fault she got sick. Medicaid generally doesn't help adults unless the government deems you disabled or you have young children.

Answer 4

I would start by asking the hospital if they have programs that offer assistance to the disadvantaged and uninsured. They may have such a program that will help foot the bill. At the very least they may be able to point you in the right direction.

Answer 5

The time to ask for assistance is before the bills go to collection. But it never hurts to ask. Most hospital's have charity care. She shoul contact the billing office or financial counseling office at the hospital and ask. Sometimes physicians also accept  charity care approvals (although they are not required to), so if she does get approved for it, ask the doctors if they also accept it.

Chances are, she might have been able to qualify for Medicaid, but they will only go back 3 months from the time of application to cover past medical expenses.

You don't say if she is still disabled, but if there is a chance she might be, she should try and apply for medicade, since they can also determine if she would qualify for SSDI.

Short of that, she should ask her church if they have any (or are aware of any) programs that could assist.

Answer 6

Yes. It is possible to work out payment plans with the hospital, even if only a little can be paid each month (just to show an effort to pay). Your friend needs to talk to finacial at the hospital.