Re: Hospital costs

[Guest guest]

Hi and Lynn

I posted about the help non-profit hospitals will give to you if you don't have insurance - at least in Ohio. It is normally at the larger hospitals. The discount depends on your income, your assets and your debts if you don't have insurance. For instance, Riverside and Grant hospitals in Columbus Ohio print their dicsounts right on the back of their bills. If you have under $25,000 income - you are at the 100% charity level. It depends on how many are in the household, etc. You have to fill out a financial applicaiton.

It is best to ask for a financiancial counselor at any hospital to try and find out what help is available. Normally they will also let you make payments without finance charges. We are paying $10 a month on a $5000 bill on our local hospital that would not give us a discount and on the surgeons bill of $2000 It will take us the rest of our lives since we are 61 to pay off the hospital!! But they will accept such an arrangement. They also are much less likely to take you to court over the bills as a credit card company would. I think it is a better deal to work right with the hospitals and the doctors. At least you don't stand much of a chance of losing your home.

If you have a lot of assets or CDs and savings accounts - they won't be as willing to help you. The poor middle class never gets a break. But it is always worth talking with a financial counselor to find out what help is available.

Pat

Hospital costs

There was a posting the other week, I think on Surfacehippy, from someone who said that she and her husband get huge discounts from the hospital because their income is low. She said many hospitals have a charitable foundation that most people do not know about. Worth checking.Chris>> Pat, my husband's business also went under in 2003 and we were left with no insurance. I am still waiting...............if I ever get my TKR, I will also have to go to Betty Ford to get off this Vicodan. To add insult, I tore the Achilles Tendon on the opposite leg last week. Now what? So I'm hobbling around the house! Life and it's little jokes. Who said the Golden Years are great? Anyway, I still have my sense of humor and try to go with the flow. BTW, I live in Northern Michigan and had a scope on the bad knee in 2004, and had to have cash right up front at the hospital. A new knee up here is $28,000+; the scope was $5,000. Lynn Holbrook> > > ---------------------------------> Photos> Ring in the New Year with Photo Calendars. Add photos, events, holidays, whatever.>

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