? about using doctors after you include them in BK

[snowangel]

My family and I have a ton of medical debt mostly through:

large hospitals
lab corp
quest labs

and a huge, I mean huge the biggest in the area: medical physical complex (it is not a hospital, just a huge group of different specialists)

We were planning on including the medical expenses in BK but need to be able to keep seeing these physicians post BK.

Does anyone have any info on this???

[lookingforward]

I filed some charges from the local hospital with our bk. I had to bring my kids for lab work recently, and not a peep. Of course, since my income is down so low now, they have SCHIP cards, so that may have had something to do with it, but they still enter my name as the guarantor, so I would think if there was a problem they would have mentioned it.

[hereforinfo]

Do you have health insurance? I would think that if they continue to treat you they will require all payments up front from now on.

[snowangel]

Yes we have health insurance. The money owed is from deductibles. We had really bad insurance a couple years ago, 6K a year deductible and then we have a bunch of hospital visits that happened when we weren't covered under insurnace.

We have been making payments but we owe about 20K in medical debt.

We just can't afford to have the providers stop seeing our children.

Thanks for the help!

[Oblib2345]

We have had no problems going to any of the doctors/hospitals we filed on. Currently though our health insurance is paying 100% (we have reached our max out of pocket). My wife was just diagnosed with lymphoma for the sixth time and the hematologist and oncologist that we filed on have not raised any concerns about the money we discharged or whatever we may owe them after all the procedures. They treated her the same as before (she got appointments almost instantly when she found the lumps again). I would guess that as long as you have insurance, it doesn't make sense for them to not take you as even if you didn't pay, they would still get the insurance payment.

[DeadManCrawling]

I can't speak for all situations, of course, but my neighbor is an oncologist with a very large practice, a massive complex of dozens of specialists and hundreds of general dr's. He explained it to me thus:

They have so many tiers of employees and layers of billing departments that the actual Dr. rarely knows a patient's financial picture. Or even if they have defaulted or filed BK. All that is handled by administrators, who set rules about such things. Some patients continue to be very profitable, even if they default on major debts, because medicare, medicaid and other social programs pay a good chunk. Also, private insurance helps in many cases.

This, as I said, is a large group, more akin to a full-sized hospital. A smaller office is probably very different.

In fact, I had ONE missed payment on a co-pay for twenty bucks with a Dr. I liked a lot. He fired me. Sent me a letter explaining that "trust must exist between patient and Dr. And if he can't trust me to pay the bill, he won't treat me." That was exactly how it was worded. I was astonished. I called to ask why they didn't just as me for the extra 20 bucks at my next visit, but their rules were so rigid I never did figure it out. I got so angry I switched Dr's. All because the administrator in their billing dept. was more like a talking robot than a human being.

[limage]

I included all of my debt from labs and owed deductibles. I also got the threat of being fired from my doctor. I'm not sure if it was sent out by her or the physicians group. No problem- they are a dime a dozen. As long as I can get my recods I don't care.

I have my fingers crossed for a public option. My insurance costs are outrageous through my employer (over 300 a month with 2k deductible).

[OhioFiler]

DMC is most correct. You need not worry. These doctors will continue to treat your children and won't know about the BK.

If I were a doctor I would take patients post-BK whether they included me as a creditor or not. You're stuck paying my bills for 8 years after BK so I will have plenty of recourse should you not pay in the future.

[dakota112]

As a physician, I can tell you it is no fun collecting money from people. Everyone thinks doctors are rich and don't really need the money. In my case I was too nice for over 20 years, gave my patients plenty of time, lots of care and compassion and this indebted me like cancer over the years, slowly at first, then more rapidly as malprac insurance abrubtly rose 600% and higher along with the huge cost of running an office, bills, overhead, taxes rising, accreditation, licensing fees, employees salaries etc etc. Billing co alone charged 9% every time I sent a bill. In the end, many patients just didn't pay me and I carried them, never discharged one of them ever. My wife hated me for it as in the end it has led me to this road. I know I will be OK and my wife has been understanding as she knew fully well I am one of the few docs who went into medicine to really help people . Many of my colleagues are in it for the money in fact I would say most, giving 5 or 10 min visits at most, mine lasted up to an hour. Ins companies however became merciless in fact many times not paying me at all, so I gave up hospital rounds 2 years ago as many times they just wouldn't pay. The risk you take in liability to treat patients for yourself and family is enormous. In primary care its hardly worth it after all the years spent and expense to get the MD degree. Many doctors will be going Bankrupt down the road. I just want to get it over with. In the future I will have to be paid for my services . Surely the lawyers won't even talk to you without being paid upfront, imagine that. It is a lowly profession compared to medicine if you ask me. We are in big trouble in this country with medical lcare. You just can't expect professionals to invest all this time, sufferring(hard work, deprivation of sleep and family for many years) and end up like this. I look at all these bankers and brokers and lawyers most without morals and compassion and just wonder where this country is heading. Go ahead and bash doctors but I guarantee you in the end we will all need them. I have promised my wife I will put our family first from now on. My patients are the big losers now also as I closed down my practice and will now just work for wages in the future if I can find a job that I can survive in. Unfortunately when you are employed now it is a numbers game and I doubt I will be able to survive in an environment where you are obligated to see a pt every 10 to 15 minutes or else you bare terminated. This is the real world of industrial medicine now in the USA. Get used to it folks. Short Shrift.

[momisery]

The problem is no one can afford to pay 175.00 for 15 minutes of care and make min. wage while paying it. So if doctors make enough or not is not the question, or the problem. The problem is someone is making too much, because the rest of us can not afford to pay these bills. Plain and simple, huh?

[momisery]

My family doctor growing up use to do house calls! And later in life when I use to visit a doctor I could afford it and was not making a ton of money. Today, I am still not making a ton. but I make much more than min. wage and I still can not afford to go in. My healthcare insurance costs 260 bucks a month, with a 1000 deduc. for both of us, and a 9000 out of pocket max and a hubby laid off that is impossible to pay that. If I have to pay the 260 a month I should have to pay little for the visit.. who is getting that money ,well, the middle people and they are living high on the hog with it too. My family doctor lived in a normal neighbor hood, not a gaited community, he drove a nice car and smelled of pipe tobacco. He was not rich, but he was happy, he loved his job. He once told me he took it up because he loved it, and would not love farming or working in a factory. Doing what you love is so important. Today people think because they were born with "gifts" alike football players, or very brilliant people that Money is what they deserve, they are not happy with being given a gift to do what they love instead of being shakled to a machine in a factory. Tons of people are not doing jobs they love, but they are making a living. If I could make what I am making and LOVE what I do I would be happy.. Greed is the problem.. people have the GOTTA HAVES...

[ForumReader]

The problem is no one can afford to pay 175.00 for 15 minutes of care and make min. wage while paying it. So if doctors make enough or not is not the question, or the problem. The problem is someone is making too much, because the rest of us can not afford to pay these bills. Plain and simple, huh?

Exactly! Wow about Dakota's posting, calling patients losers?

[goingcrzy]

Doing what you love is so important. Today people think because they were born with "gifts" alike football players, or very brilliant people that Money is what they deserve, they are not happy with being given a gift to do what they love instead of being shakled to a machine in a factory.

This is very true and I got caught up in this too. One of the things I am grateful about my BK is that it has allowed me to wipe the slate clean and go back to doing what I love.

[OhioFiler]

I'm not buying Dakota's story that his kindness to patients led to his bankruptcy.

[goingcrzy]

I'm not buying Dakota's story that his kindness to patients led to his bankruptcy.

Some Drs are horrible business people. They end up closing the practice and work in a hospital.

But - I am not sure why he isn't going to work out of hospital next. Maybe burnout, or something more...