r/HospitalBills

unsure if this is the correct place to talk about this but my mother is disabled, she was on medicare for several years, Last year she had to go in for an emergency procedure in april of last year (Between the dates of 4/20/2025 and the start of may as she was present at home on my birthday on 5/5/2025), they have only sent the bill to medicare on 5/15/2026, now medicare is attempting to charge my mother 56000 dollars as they stopped covering my mother in april of this year without informing her. i do not know if this is even fully legal as, atleast in my own knowledge, hospitals have a maximum of 1 year to send the bill to medicare before that case is tossed out.
i am exceptionally confused at this point

To start I have Medicaid. I saw a minute clinic in January to get a prescription refilled when I couldn’t get to my regular doctor. Medicaid paid for the medicine but got a bill for the visit. Called minute clinic and they said I needed to contact Medicaid. Medicaid said they would cover it and minute clinic needs to bill it to them properly. I have called them numerous times and every time I call back they said they just need to resubmit the claim because “the previous member number on file was incorrect” This has been going back and forth since then and today I got a notice that my debt was sold to collections while my claim was just resubmitted last week. I can’t afford to pay the debt. What can I do?

Hello, as the title says - our medical bills are finally starting to arrive. Our daughter was born and passed May 21, we’ve been grieving and trying to find whatever good we can after losing her. Today we received our first bill. It seems like such a slap in the face - first to not have an unmedicated natural birth like we hoped for, to have an emergency c section, to lose our daughter, and now to be getting billed for it all. This first bill was upwards of $50,000. We do have insurance that covers a chunk, but even that is more than we expected to pay and I know that there will be more bills rolling in as none of this was for our little girls neonatal stay where they tried to keep her breathing.

Does anyone have experience negotiating these type of medical bills? What is the likelihood of them negotiating with me after the bills have already gone through insurance?

Thank you in advance. This already sucked, but now I feel like freshly healed wounds are being ripped back open.

Happy 4th of July fellow Americans.

Stop paying for medical bills. Before anyone chimes in that it's illegal or unethical (rule on sub), debt is not illegal, and uncollectible debt that does not hit your credit report affects you 0%. It's akin to going to a restaurant, paying the set price for an item, then the restaurant telling you that item was actually $10,000 after you eat. You can simply decide to walk out.

There are 11 states that have banned medical debt from hitting your credit report. California, New York, notably large. Other stats are possibly following suit.

What happens if you don't pay?

• Hospitals, medical services may still send your debt to a debt collector. Block that number and unknown callers, and you're kush. No - they cannot come seize your home or put you in the puppy pound. Nor does your insurance (if you have insurance) get canceled. The debt just fades into the history of time. And no, you will not be denied for necessary medical care in the future.
• A lot of threads tell you to negotiate with hospitals - if you live in those 11 states, you do not need to do this. Pop open a cold one and watch some fireworks instead, in this dystopian hell-hole we live in.
• OK - I don't live in those 11 states. What do I do? You can still refuse to pay. On average, FICO scores have been progressively going down, so the barrier to entry for getting approved for auto-loans or mortgages have been lessening in turn. If your medical debt(s) are under $500 in debt, it won't affect you. If you make small payments, it won't affect you (yes you can talk to hospital about this). Or you can simply not care about your FICO score, as that is... the zeitgeist of our society.
• Aren't there hacks, with your insurance, where if you ask the hospital/medical provider for an audit of the cost-of-goods-sold and necessity of procedures, that they'll most likely keel over? Yup. This post isn't about that but you can 100% do that and your bills will decrease. There's multiple posts on Reddit about this.

The point of the post is, I see so many Americans create GoFundMe's to pay for procedures, stress out about looming bills and go into severe debt to pay an arbitrary amount that was set by two-opposing factions (hospitals and insurance providers) that have 0 interest in you. Get the care you need, get the care you deserve, and save that money instead for something that's important for you and your family. Our culture is conditioned on guilt - and entities abuse that conditioning to squeeze as much out of you.

What will happen to society if I don't pay my debt? Who cares, but most likely we'll edge towards fair market prices for receiving care, and predatory systems wills naturally crumble (or.. let's face it.. be fine and profits will simply go down somewhere that won't even affect you).

Source: I have never paid for medical bills beyond insurance. Nothing has happened to me. My credit scores have never dipped. I have bought a home instead. And my friends that are doctors/medical professionals have done the same and agree. And no - not a lawyer / not financial advice. I'm just a regular guy.

It's comical you have to pay $500 per visit when the front desk person never answers the phone call half of the time when you try to make an appointment. Hospitals expect you to arrive early when doctors are allowed to show up late with zero consequences. Hospitals put up signs that say they don't tolerate any abuse, yet doctors and nurses are allowed to scream and abuse patients with zero consequences. It's ridiculous. There is so many things I can use the money on, but instead, I feel like I am just wasting money on the healthcare system. But I don't have a choice because everyone says obey doctors too.

Long story short, husband was having chest pains. Went to the ER but his crappy insurance will cover 50%, so my balance is slightly under $9k. I have been making small payments but they keep trying to put me on a payment plan of $700 for 12 months. I cannot afford that. I’ve been sending them $100 a month but they said that after 6 months it will automatically go to collections unless I’m enrolled in their payment plan. She had me fill out the financial assistance application but I know our income is too high to qualify. But I did it to appease them. Can I avoid the collections in any way? If I pay the collection agency per month will it still negatively affect my credit?

The hospital where I delivered my baby billed my newborn for a daily revenue code of 0172 (special care nursery) even though my child received no specialized monitoring or treatment. Everything I’ve read it should have been billed as 0171 (well newborn nursery). I have tried reaching out to hospital but have been stonewalled and only been told “it’s right” without any supporting documentation. I’m curious what other new moms got billed for their healthy newborns who required no feeding tubes, jaundice treatment, NICU care, etc. Thanks in advance!

I had an emergency room visit in May to Broward health Medical Center in Fort Lauderdale an in network public hospital that’s in network of my insurance, I received a bill after my insurance paid out of $775. I am unable to afford that with my low income of $3000-$3500 a month and supporting myself. For two weeks I have been given the run around and I was given different phone numbers for the Financial Aid department of the hospital and never was able to get a hold of anyone. These numbers went to the same automated voicemail and no one ever called me back now today. When I called the billing office again I was told that there are no Financial Aid options for someone that has insurance (even if underinsured) only uninsured people which doesn’t make sense that I’d be given multiple numbers and then suddenly today I’d be told that there is no Financial Aid for me. The idiots on the phone also said they “don’t do settlements” and that there’s no reduction or hardship rates and gave me a main billing office that I can call that’s above them. What can I do to reduce the rate? My insurance has already paid them thousands of dollars it doesn’t seem right that I should pay 700+ dollars. I can afford to pay maybe half of this if I scrounge up some cash. I can’t afford more than that even in a payment plan I can’t afford an $87 a month payment plan what should I do? I only make right now around $3000 a month which is very low.

Hey everyone, I'm looking for advice or to hear from anyone who has been through something similar.

My sister gave birth on March at 35 weeks. The baby was critically ill and was admitted to the NICU. She was then airlifted to a second hospital that specializes in caring for the sickest newborns.

Tragically, my niece passed away the next day after about 15 hours of life.

Fast forward to June, and my sister and brother-in-law have been overwhelmed with medical bills totaling an unbelievable amount. They recently found out that the insurance company denied coverage because they didn't enroll the baby within the required 30-day window (We are in July now). They had no idea they still needed to manually add their baby to the insurance plan, especially after she had passed away. My sister genuinely believed the baby was already covered.

This has reopened the trauma of losing their daughter. On top of grieving, they're now facing the possibility of six-figure medical debt. The stress has become so overwhelming that my brother-in-law is now experiencing health issues himself.

Ps: My sister actually works at the first hospital where she delivered, and my brother-in-law works at the second hospital where their daughter was transferred by flight.

Has anyone been in a similar situation where:

You forgot to enroll a newborn within the 30-day window?

An employer insurance plan made an exception after an appeal?

You were able to get coverage approved after explaining the circumstances?

A hospital reduced or forgave a large portion of the bill through financial assistance or another program?

They're already working with HR/ insurance, but they won't cover it because they missed "30-day window" anyone has had success appealing under extraordinary circumstances like this.

Any advice or shared experiences would mean a lot. Thank you.

Problem/Goal: Just wanted to ask for help, my mom is currently admitted sa hospital here in Calamba. She had a major surgery and our current bill is 200k+. Last update ko po with Intellicare ubos na yun limit dahil sa previous visits ni Mama sa hospital and konti nalang kayang ishoulder ng HMO.

Gusto ko po sana makahingi ng financial assistance sa government agencies kasi hindi ko po kaya ishoulder yun bill.

Need po ba talaga final bill ang ibigay as requirements? Ang understanding ko po kasi kapag may final bill na, need na bayaran para makauwi na. Kaso kung doon palang po malalakad yun papers, wala po akong enough funds to cover the bill.

Pumunta po ako sa Mayor’s office kaso ang sinabi po after a month pa makukuha yun financial assistance and kontong percentage lang ng final bill yun kaya mabigay na help.

Thank you po.

I have been seeing a cardiologist for the past six months for chest pain and high blood pressure. My doctor has provided excellent care, and I have no concerns about him.
On June 16, I traveled approximately 2,000 miles for my scheduled appointment. When I arrived, I learned that my doctor was unavailable. I had not been informed beforehand, and I was seen by a nurse instead.
During the visit, I explained all of my current medications and symptoms. The nurse prescribed or refilled a medication that resulted in me taking two medications from the same class at the same time. I followed the instructions because I trusted that my medications had been reviewed correctly.
Over the following days, I noticed that my diastolic blood pressure was repeatedly very low, sometimes between 52 and 55 mmHg.
When I saw my doctor on June 30, he reviewed my medications and immediately told me that I should not have been taking both medications together because it effectively doubled the treatment. He stopped the duplicate medication and ordered kidney function tests because of the potential risk to my kidneys.
I appreciate my doctor’s care, but I am very concerned that this medication issue happened in the first place. I believe the nurse should have carefully reviewed my medication list before prescribing or refilling medications. I also believe the hospital should have informed me in advance that my doctor would not be available, especially since I traveled such a long distance.

I intend to file a formal complaint so this can be investigated and to help prevent something similar from happening to another patient. Has anyone been through a similar situation? How did you handle it, and how did the hospital respond?

I am so frustrated. My husband visited a cardiologist and we paid the provider copay (HMO plan, by the way). The doctor set him up for testing that we assumed (first mistake) was at an affiliated office.

Turns out, the site is considered hospital outpatient at a local hospital even though it's not actually at the hospital so, instead of paying a regular copay, we got hit with nearly $1,300 from the hospital. That doesn't include whatever the physician is going to charge.

I'm sure this will be a controversial statement. We qualify for a charity care discount but I will not disclose our entire financial profile for the possibility of a small discount. If it were hundreds of thousands of dollars and we were about to lose our house, yeah okay. Filling out the application would make sense then. It's incredibly invasive and seems to be a screening out tool to be honest.

That said, I'm going to negotiate. I just need advice on what is reasonable to pay to close out imaging fees they're charging us $1,300 out of pocket for.

Where would you begin with your offer? I was thinking I would offer a $700 lump sum payment to settle and close the account. Is that unreasonable for a prompt pay discount.

I'm curious if this is normal coding or if I should be pushing back on it -

I was charged for a CT scan w/ Contrast Material

CT Scan - General Classification

HC CT Abdomen & Pelvis W/Contrast Material - 74177 (CPT®)

And then in the pharmacy line I was charged with the actual contrast material

Pharmacy - Extension of 025x - General

Iohexol per 1 Ml (0407-1414-72) - quantity: 100 - Q9967 (HCPCS)

Is that typical?

I pushed back once and they reviewed it and sent some wordy reply that it was coded correctly but the reply didn't sound like it addressed the issue at all. So I'm thinking of pushing back again. But I'm not sure if I'm pushing against a brick wall.

Are there any consequences to not paying an ambulance bill and letting it go to collections? If it goes into collections, do they come looking for you? Californian here.

I got a bill in the mail on Friday (June 26th) with a due date of July 4th and a statement date of June 19th. Their customer service is only available Tues-Thurs 8am-5pm, so they've essentially given me a bill with 3 business days to sort out what's going on???

I've called their billing ("patient services") twice to get an itemized receipt and it's gone straight to voicemail. I don't want to pay this without seeing what the charges are for; how aggressively do urgent cares hunt down patients for overdue charges?

(Not to mention that the portal to pay the bill is super sketchy looking...)

Long story short, my husband started a job 72 days ago...his insurance for said job doesn't allow enrollment until 90 days, go figure. His old job's ensurance ran out because this job had delays in hiring and so there was a period where he was and still is uninsured. So he ended up in the ER with severe abdominal pain rule out apendicitis 2 days ago... CT scan, ultrasound, IV and bloodwork. We are expecting a 20k bill or something arent we? Anyways, we were told that because of the insurance situation we might be able to sign up and retroactively get coverage for the visit since he was in the waiting period of getting insurance... that they may cover a %. But im wondering if self pay might actually be cheaper. If so, I wanted to get an itemized bill and look up fair market price but am having trouble finding costs for the ER... I see standard care but not ER prices. Anyone have any website or luck with this? Also, we won't qualify for financial assistance.

EDIT FOR CLARITY: he isnt eligible for COBRA because his last job was out of state and he was scheduled to start this new job sooner, but the employer dragged thier feet on hire on process and that COBRA period 60 days ran out... hes been at his new job 72 days.. his.benefits at new job kick in at 90 days.