Hosiptal Bills - International Student?

Question

Hi everyone, I always refer to yahoo answers for quick answer to my questions, but this is first for me asking a question, I am hoping that I will get an answer as I normally do by searching/

I am international student came to US for school, and I have health insurance as mandated by the school requirements, when I registered for school, they gave me a list of health insurance companies to choose from, so I just picked on, after one year I had accident and I broke my left wrest, no one was involved in the accident, only me.

An ambulance came and took me to the hospital, and I stayed in the ER for a whole night, regular room for the next 10 hrs and then they scheduled me to a surgery for my wrest at that time, at that the physician first said that I don’t need a surgery after examining my x-ray, but then he came back after contacting the hand specialized clinic, and he said that I will need to have a surgery.

The physician asked me if I have insurance company, I said yes, but since I know my insurance is not so great I asked what if my insurance does not cover my bills they told me not to worry, because there is so many programs helps especially students, so I said ok, and I had the surgery, about 10 minutes before my surgery, the doctor told me that she did not have a look at my X-ray, and she took me to the x-ray room, right before the surgery. but I did have my surgery thinking that it was my only option, after that I had therapy, and my insurance did not start paying till I was done with my therapy, and I use to call the insurance during my recovery and ask them, if they are going to pay everything and they are going to cover/not cover, and the ladies that answered me (customer care) always say, not to worry, because my plan covers up to $50’000, and as long as I am not exceeding this amount I would be fine.

But when the insurance starting paying they paid only $6’000 from total cost of $37’000, saying that there is breakdown and I basically exceeded my total benefits according to my plan, leaving me with $31’000 debt, calling the hospitals, they are not even offering me discounts because as they said that I am international person, and I do not qualify for any government funds, contacting my school, they are not offering any help from any kind, the hospital wants me to pay, but the bills are too high and I can not afford them, and the school is telling me that in the best of my interest that I pay the hospitals because if I don’t I may get deported, if my bills go to the collection agencies, I tried to contact red cross, international institute they did not help, I tried to contact my embassy three times, they did not return my calls, I tried to hire a lawyer, no lawyer wants to take my case, because a case like this would take at least 3-5 yrs and my staying in the country might not be that long, besides lawyers charge too much,

So I am stalk with these bills, and I have no idea of how to deal with, I am planning to file a claim against my insurance, but I am not putting too much hope there, especially my insurance is a big insurance company and they may get away with it, as one of my friends told me.

Any ideas/suggestions about how to deal with this situation??

Thank you for your help

Answer 1

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Answer 2

I can't believe the hospital isn't re-pricing to a cash price.  I think there's a communication breakdown somewhere.

Your total benefit is for $6,000?  Or is it for $50,000?  That hospital bill needs to get repriced to reflect agreed service prices.  I can't see you being stuck with more than $5,000 in the end.  

If you bought this through your school, go to the school admin offices, and get someone there to help you work through this plan.

Answer 3

Welcome to the USA

Answer 4

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Answer 5

Yikes!

Next time, please reduce the words in your question.  We only get two points for an answer.  (Twelve, if ours is also selected as the best answer.)

You had an accident.  You are not suing the place where you had the accident, I am supposing.

The hospital and the doctor(s) treated you.  Because you selected an insurance policy that was inexpensive, the company is not required to cover everything.   That, not incidentally, is one of the choices a person makes when they self-insure.  

You opted for a cheap insurance policy.  The things which are not covered by that policy are voluntarily covered by you.  That is what we in the USA refer to as 'self-insurance'.  You made a choice.   You saved money on the premium.  You got what you paid for.

You state that the insurance company may 'get away with it'.  That is a good American term.  It implies that the insurance company did something improper.

From what you have stated, there is no manifest impropriety.

Answer 6

Your school has some department that works with international students. Go to them. They may be able to get the hospital to write down some of the bill for you. You are going to end up owing a lot of money--just like happens to most Americans because our insurance in this country is ridiculous and they get to mislead people all they want.

As you are not a citizen and going home, I doubt they can "do" anything to you, but your school needs to pull its head out and list ONLY plans that will really serve your needs.

Sorry there is no recourse in the US given the lobbying power of the massive insurers.