Only had a collection agency on my case one time...it was 6/8 months after my heart attack. I had spent almost 2 weeks in three different hospitals. I got out of the hospital one morning and that day I got a bill for the ER from the first hospital. I spent about an hour in the ER there and got a bill for $9,100. Written by hand diagonally across the bill in red ink was
"Do not pay this bill as we are still in discussions with your insurance company."Well, insurance company sent me a notice that they had paid most of the bill and I never got another bill from the first hospital. Late in the afternoon of a Friday 6/8 months later I got a call from a collection agency in Tennessee. The collection agency said that I was delinquent in paying my hospital bill of $910 and that if I would put it on my credit card they would settle for $450 and mark it paid. I have never had a credit card and told the guy I didn't have one. He said that If I wired them the money that day they would settle for the $450. I told him it was mighty late in the day and the bank would be closed before I got to town and that I would do it Monday morning. He says that if I wire it on Monday morning it would cost me $540 to settle the bill. I had just that day gotten a bill from the same hospital for another visit to the ER that my insurance wouldn't pay. So, I hopped into my truck and headed over to the hospital to pay "BOTH" bills at one time.
I walked in the hospital and ran into the maintenance man, an old friend from high school. I asked him where the billing office was and he said, "Follow him, he's the head of the billing office". It was a guy I knew from the Marines and my college days. We shot the breeze for awhile catching up on the past 35 years then he asked why I was there. I told him about the collection agency calling me about paying a bill I never got. He remembered the bill because he was the one that wrote "don't pay" on it. Long story short, he wanted all the money but I told him the collection agency would settle for half that and maybe I should deal with them. He laughed and said he would take the $450 and mark it paid.
Well, I wrote a check and that took care of the old bill. Then I plopped out the new bill and asked how much it would take to settle it. He tells me we haven't had time to hear from your insurance company. I told him that my insurance wasn't going to pay anything on that bill, I was going to have to pay it all...."Oh now, we have to have it paid in full then", he says. I told him that if my insurance company was willing to pay the bill that they would and did give the insurance company at least a 10% discount on all bills sent to them. I asked why couldn't he do the same for me. He knocked 10% off the bill and I paid it.
...and so ended my one and only encounter with a collection agency....almost. I guess the collection agency had gotten shit out of their collection fee because I paid the hospital directly because the next week they called and tried to collect their fee from me....
...Fat chance of that happening.
ETA: Let me tell a little more about hospitals, insurance companies and billing.
I spent less than an hour in the first hospital ER. Because, as the doctor put it, I was having a major-major heart attack, they weren't equipped to take care of someone in my condition. He couldn't get me stable and out of there to another hospital fast enough. Well, I arrived at the second hospital and they weren't capable of taking care of me either...BUT...they kept me in ICU for 48 hours to get me stable enough to shipp on to a third hospital and surgery.
Now here's what I'm getting at. First hospital bill, $9,100 and insurance paid 90% of it and I paid (see above) the rest.
Second hospital bill for 48 hours of ICU was $16,000. My insurance company had/has a contract with them. Insurance company paid them $4,000 and bill was "PAID IN FULL". If I had been able or unable to pay myself, they would have been looking for or suing for the full $16,000....that just ain't right.
Third and final hospital bill was for $16,001. I had surgery done there and was in ICU 6 days and 2 days in CCU. The total bill there was just $16,001 and my damn insurance company was arguing about the price. They didn't want to pay the full price....
....they paid 2 nd hospital $2,000 a day for just ICU care with no fuss but didn't want to pay the 3 rd the same rate for surgery
and care because they didn't have a contract with them....
Moral of the story is...ask questions about billing if you're ever in the hospital. Start off nice, then be an ass...act like a DUmmie if you have too. The money you save may be your own.
