You have a few avenues available to help pay off hospital bills.
Whether you have insurance or not, hospitals are required to give you proper care. They will bill you later, however, and you will need to make payment arrangements. These bills are often very high and hard to pay. There are a few things you can do to pay your hospital bill without insurance.
Instructions
1. Call your hospital's main line and ask for the charity-care department. To apply for charity care, you must be under a certain income level. This is determined by how many household members you have. You will need to provide proof of income, proof of identity and proof of residency. You also have to fill out an application. You will be assigned a case worker who can help you with each step. This program covers the hospital expenses, but usually not the fees for the doctors who evaluated you.
2. Apply for the Catastrophic Illness in Children Relief Fund if it is your child who incurred the hospital bills. This fund pays for any expenses related to your child's care that insurance didn't cover. If you have no insurance, it is even easier to apply. Again, you will have to provide proof of identity, proof of income, proof of residency and all applicable bills. Each state has this fund; you can find your state's application online. This fund covers all of the expenses and can even be used to pay doctor fees that aren't covered by charity care.
3. Negotiate with the hospital and doctors who sent you the bill. Sometimes you can negotiate to bring down the debt and make your total payout much less. Remind them that they don't charge insurance companies full price. (If they charge $800 for services and the insurance company gives them $500, then they call the total debt $500. But without insurance, they charge you the full $800. Most patients don't know about this.) Call the hospital's representative and let him know about your situation. State that you believe in paying what you owe; you just want to pay a fair price. See if the hospital will knock the price down for you (in most cases, it will).
4. Pay what you can. All medical facilities will take what they can get, and they don't charge interest. The important thing is that you pay something each month, even if it is only $5. It makes it look like you are making an effort to resolve the debt and doing the best you can. As long as you continuously pay on the debt, it will not go to collection.
5. Contact your local church. If you are a member of a church and you are hurting financially, church members may help. They can gather donations for the medical costs or hold a fundraiser. This is a great option because, in addition to financial support, it will also give you the emotional support you need to get through your tough time.
Tags: they charge, charity care, have insurance, identity proof, income proof
