medical bills

[jal1129]

Is there any down side to including medical bills recently incurred? We should be filing 7 within the next 2 weeks or so and I just got an anestesiologist(sp?) bill yesterday for almost $1000 from a surgery dh had in Nov. Is there any reason why we would'nt want to include this (any rules like the 70/90 for medical?)? All the other medical bills should be covered thru insurance this one just had the deductible applied to it.

[HHM]

I honestly don't know if a medical bill would fall under the 90 day exception period, it might depend on what the surgery was for, i.e. was the surgery necessary. The only other downside would be that the Dr. and the facility they used may refuse to take you in the future (but there are usually other facilities).

I would include it in your BK, after all, you are required to list ALL debts. Moreover, a payment to this creditor would probably be treated as preferential, since the medical bill is equivalent to any other unsecured debt. Thus, the trustee would go after the Dr. and facility to get the money back.

Also, most Dr.'s and medical facilities have loss insurance to cover this type of non-payment.

[jal1129]

thanks. It was for emergency surgery for an accident he was in. We will just list it and see what the lawyer thinks, if we need to work out payments outside of the bk then we will.

[keepmine]

You can include it. Medical treatment of that sort is not considered a luxury item.

[lrprn]

Seven months before we filed, I broke my ankle which required surgery. We listed the amount we still owed the hospital after insurance and a few months of trying to pay the remainder down - not a peep. My orthopedic surgeon still sees me for follow-up visits too.