Question : What can a company or hospital do to you if you refuse to pay your bill?
For example - I took my husband to an ER - where they did nothing for him. He had a rash all over his body, and the doctor we took him to said he couldn't help him and he needed to be seen IMMEDIATELY. So we took him to the ER, but didn't have insurance. I imagined we would be in debt for years, as they would have to do tests and all that - but it was worth it. Anyway, seriously the dr. LOOKED at him and wrote a prescription. That was it. No tests. No bandages. Nothing. Just looked - said it was a dermatitis gone horribly wrong and wrote him a prescription for cortizone and allergy meds and sent us on our way. We paid 200 dollars, which was expensive for a visit - and left. Now we have a bill for the DR for 700 and the ER for another 350. I have refused to pay. My credit sucks... so I am not worried about that. But what can any company really do to enforce that bills are paid?I don't plan on working for a large company or buying a house. We live pretty meagerly and are moving into an RV. LOL I read tarot for a job and basically we are hippies, lol.We have no credit cards and don't have any plans on buying a car. We filed bk 3 years ago - and since then we don't have anything bad on it. We made some mistakes before - but we generally pay our bills on time. Maybe a late here or there now. Also, I have written letters to each of them to dispute the claim.
- asked by Knotty Tangerine
All Answers:
Answer #1
They'll get a judgement against you and will sellit to a collection agency, then your credit willreally suck. But if you don't want to own ahouse, rent a great apartment, have low carpayments on a new car, or work for a big company,it shouldn't be much of a problem.By the way,there was just an article on Yahoo about all thethings affected by credit scores. In addition tothe ones I listed, some insurance companies,including car insurance companies are refusingcoverage to people with bad credit.
- answered by Yo it's Me
Answer #2
They can file a lawsuit and win it. Then they geta judgement against you. You cannot filebankruptcy or otherwise get rid of a judgement.What I would do is this. I would write a letterto the hospital indicating that you thought the$200 you paid covered the bill in full. I wouldalso indicate that you are disputing the validityof the bill. They have to take that seriously andrespond by searching into it. I would alsocontact the doctor you took him to -- ask why theyrecommended he see the ER if it was justdermatitis.
- answered by mj69catz
Answer #3
Generally, they turn you into a collectionsagency, put it on your credit report, and in somecases, may take you to court and garnish yourwages. One thing many people don't know, if youcall them and explain your extremely broke andwould make payments of $1.00 or @$2.00 a month,and will try to send in more if and when you can,they won't put you in collections. Definitelywon't garnish your wages, because any judge wouldsee your making an effort. However little it is.
- answered by Salis S
Answer #4
Eventually they can take you to court. And try tosue you for the money. I know they will send you abill with a minimum payment due. But even if yousend like $10 to prove that you are trying to paysomething on it each month, I think the court (ifit gets that far) would see that as something, ifyou can prove that you've been trying and that isthe best you can do at the moment.I know itsfrustrating that you feel like they really didn'tdo anything. But they still provided a service toyou and I'm sure tons of other people feel thesame way, like its a waste of money. But ifeveryone just doesn't pay, the next time, yourbill will be even more. Because they have to coverthe costs somehow
- answered by Nicole t
Answer #5
All they can do is put it on your credit and sendit to collections. I have several ER bills on mycredit that should have been paid by patientassistance but for some reason were not entirelycovered. Medical bills are not supposed to affectyour numerical credit score. However, once thehospital sells it to a collection agency, it willshow up as a collection agency, not a medicalbill, since you are not worried about your credit,that isn't a problem. My advice: talk to a lawyer.Get a report from the first doctor you talked tothat said he could not help you, that advised youto go to the ER. For one thing, you should NEVEREVER have to pay up front for an ER visit, noteven at a private ER, which I assume is what youmeant by the $200. Or did you mean for the meds?Anyway, if you believe that it was improper care,then talk to a lawyer and sue to at least have thecharges dropped and have any follow up carecovered. Have you been to another doctor? Did theproblem get better? ER docs are NOTORIOUS for craplike this. They get tired of seeing people, sothey dismiss everyone that walks in the door asbeing a hypochondriac. I have been the brunt ofthis too many times too count, when because I didnot have insurance to pay up front for an officevisit I ended up in the ER. Again, I think youshould speak to a lawyer if the problem was notresolved by the prescribed treatment. Good Luck, Ihope your hubby feelsbetter.-------------------------------Well,actually, I will amend my statements, they can sueyou for it yes, but they will not for the amountthat you stated. Why? it would cost them more inlegal fees than it will to just write it off totheir insurance. The thing about ER's is that theycannot refuse treatment, even if you do notprovide them with your real name, or any name atall. And if you send them even a penny a month, ora letter stating intent to pay, then they cannotlegally sue you, but in my experience, unless youowe them thousands of dollars, they are not goingto sue you to collect. I owe in excess of probably$3000; maybe not that much, but between $1000 and$3000 surely, and they haven't even contacted mein over two years about it. That is probably 5 or6 separate bills from 3 separate visits. andanother thing, each bill is a separate charge, soit would be written off to their insuranceseparately. The Doctor's, Radiology, Laboratory,etc. , if they did sue you, it would be for eachbill separately, can you really see them spendingthousands of dollars to take you to court over 350dollars and 700 dollars respectively? Anyway, likeI said, talk to a lawyer, they should do aninitial free consultation, but make sure you haveeverything in order before you go, like a reportfrom the first doctor, the scripts written at theER any documents they gave you, etc. Also, if youcould see the first doc again and have him writeup a follow up report, that would be beneficial.anyway, I'll say it again, good luck.
- answered by froggy
Answer #6
If ur credit is already screwed then nothing toworry because u cant get blood out of a tomato.They will continue to send u the bills and turnover the situation to ur local credit bureau. Butif ur family is in a low income situation nexttime go to the e.r. at ur county hospital. U needto go to the welfare office to see if u qualifyfor health cards.
- answered by cool breeze
Answer #7
Unless their planning on suing you for a thousandbucks (and their not), other than sending you somerude letters and maybe calling you, there'sabsolutely nothing they can do!! Good thing wedon't have debtor's prisons, huh??
- answered by god nose
Answer #8
Well, if you don't care about your credit and youdon't have any assets and you are self employed,all they can do is file a lawsuit get a judgementand order you to pay it. But you can't sue someonethat has no money. I worked at a law office and wewould get people wanting to sue people that had nomoney. We would ask them: Where is the money youwant going to come from? Money can't appear out ofthin air so that was something the plaintiff wouldhave to consider. The hospital has a lot of moneyto try and go after you and is probably willing topay for filing fees etc. but they will justprobably send it to a collection agency and itwould go on your credit. Attorneys would be moreof a hassle to them than you are worth, nooffense. Who's going to pay them? You know? It'squite a hassle to the creditor to try going afterdebtors with non-existent assets. If you don't owna house or car then there's kind of no point. Iguess they are sol.
- answered by Lisa
Answer #9
They will not take you to court for this amount astheir lawyer costs would be greater than theprofit they might receive if they win a judgement.They will eventually sell your debt to acollections agency for pennies on the dollar. Yourcredit may suck.. but it only takes a few years ofbeing on track financially to have great credit.You can make small monthly payments to get thistaken care of... such as 30 or 40 bucks. Theywon't complain as long as you consistently work onpaying the debt. A smarter solution to thisproblem would've been to go to a stat care or aclinic during normal business hours. OR operatingcosts are huge, many of which never even turn aprofit. This is the price we pay for the besthealth care in the world. To learn more aboutmoney management in a very down to earth way...check out this website. You can listen to podcastsof a daily radio show here as well. The host isDave Ramsey. Learning his approach to moneymanagement and debt can change your life forever.I spend thousands of dollars a year forhealthcare.. I know it's no picknick! You may needto use this hospital later on as well... so youdon't want to burn that bridge! I wish you thebest of luck... and really hope you'll check outsome of these shows! www.daveramsey.com
- answered by JZ
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