Desperate: drowning in debt, but employed by a creditor

[amyk0603]

I have been thinking of filling for a while now. I am employed full time at hospital for over a year. I make low hourly wage, alot less than I did before this job, but I was thankful to get a job.

Anyways, according to my credit report ran about 8 months ago I had about 17K in old bank acct owed, old utilities, medical bills, 1 or 2 credit cards (but small < 1,000) since the 8 months I have had 2 surgeries and my husband had 3 spinal injections. You would think working at hospital we'd have great insurance, but we don't. So I've accrued roughly another 5K now. All together it's about 20K-ish.

I do not own a home, I rent, van paid off. I have 4 kids no child support, married but he was laid off and in college. (as am I part time) Like so many others we are drowning in debt.

the last scary straw was last week I got a call at work requesting our payroll dept, unsure of who it was (not realizing it was about me) I explained it would be the main hospital HR dept. She then asked if I was the person, and said that she has 11 accts at their collection agency, all medical bills from surgeries, post ops, labs, etc....deductible... I told her I was considering bankruptcy and she asked I call her next week w/ more info. She said that she was requesting my payroll dept to get info about filling something on me b/c the letters and no payments were made. I'm thinking they wanted to sue me for garnishing or something??

I saw a pro bono attny who said I could do this, but suggested I think about it b/c the med. bills are not only the hospital itself but some dr. 's that work for the hospital.

I just don't know what to do, I'm scared.

[Momof123]

I have been thinking of filling for a while now. I am employed full time at hospital for over a year. I make low hourly wage, alot less than I did before this job, but I was thankful to get a job.

Anyways, according to my credit report ran about 8 months ago I had about 17K in old bank acct owed, old utilities, medical bills, 1 or 2 credit cards (but small < 1,000) since the 8 months I have had 2 surgeries and my husband had 3 spinal injections. You would think working at hospital we'd have great insurance, but we don't. So I've accrued roughly another 5K now. All together it's about 20K-ish.

I do not own a home, I rent, van paid off. I have 4 kids no child support, married but he was laid off and in college. (as am I part time) Like so many others we are drowning in debt.

the last scary straw was last week I got a call at work requesting our payroll dept, unsure of who it was (not realizing it was about me) I explained it would be the main hospital HR dept. She then asked if I was the person, and said that she has 11 accts at their collection agency, all medical bills from surgeries, post ops, labs, etc....deductible... I told her I was considering bankruptcy and she asked I call her next week w/ more info. She said that she was requesting my payroll dept to get info about filling something on me b/c the letters and no payments were made. I'm thinking they wanted to sue me for garnishing or something??

I saw a pro bono attny who said I could do this, but suggested I think about it b/c the med. bills are not only the hospital itself but some dr. 's that work for the hospital.

I just don't know what to do, I'm scared.

Does your employer ( the hospital) have any kind of employment assistance fund?? I work at a hospital and we have that you have to apply for it but many I have worked with have used it?

[amyk0603]

Yes they do but max allowed is 1,000

[Flamingo]

I agree with the previous poster...many places have contacts for employees in place for elder care needs, marriage problems, financial problems, etc. with counselors available. You may want to see if that is available to you; if not, if you are so worried about your job and your situation, contact your HR supervisor, make an appointment to see him/her, sit down and explain your situation/worries. The conversation is confidential and private and cannot be divulged to anyone. I am sure you would not be the only employee who has done so. If you are a good employee and diligent on your job and doing a good job, there should be no problems whasoever if the hospital is a creditor on your bankruptcy.

[meateater]

don't be certain that conversations with HR cannot be divulged to anyone. I don't work in an HR department, but am familiar with HR departments that are "talkative." the HR department works for the company, not the employees, so the people working there would certainly divulge something that effected the company. talking to someone in your companies HR is not like talking to an attorney who you're hiring.

I'm not trying to make anyone paranoid, but please consider who HR works for when talking to them, and don't assume its their job to keep your troubles confidential from whoever is in charge at your workplace if its something that could effect the workplace (which is why you'd be talking to them).

[dscurlock]

I would never talk to HR anything other then work related stuff...
HR is for the best interest of the company, not yours...if you are
in an at-will state, you could find yourself out of work if they think
you are not going to benefit your company...my wife got just
terminated for being the best, and her boss was threated by her,
so she was fired so he could make a point...and yes, even in an "at-will"
state, you can be fired for being the best of the best...just so the
company can cut costs, and send our jobs overseas...just because
you are the best at what you do does not make your job safe....

So if it is not work related, then do not go to HR.

[KAKRN97]

I would never talk to HR anything other then work related stuff...
HR is for the best interest of the company, not yours...if you are
in an at-will state, you could find yourself out of work if they think
you are not going to benefit your company...my wife got just
terminated for being the best, and her boss was threated by her,
so she was fired so he could make a point...and yes, even in an "at-will"
state, you can be fired for being the best of the best...just so the
company can cut costs, and send our jobs overseas...just because
you are the best at what you do does not make your job safe....

So if it is not work related, then do not go to HR.

I was fired from a hospital job so my then boss could "make a point"..employed in an 'at-will' state so had no recourse. All because I wanted to go to HR to grieve my last performance evaluation as the boss didn't have any documentation to back up the poor evaluation she gave me.
That was over 4 yrs ago...I live in a small community..people at that hospital know people at the other hospital who know people at my current hospital, etc. I cannot get a job at ANY other hospital(except the one I currently work) because of being fired. I've essentially been blackballed at every other hospital job in the area. Believe me, I apply at the other places regularly and don't even get so much as a call to set up an interview

I agree with the poster I quoted. If it isn't work related do NOT go to HR. Chances are, it'll come back to bite you! I now wish I never even MENTIONED to my old boss about going to HR.

[jacksmomma]

Dear Amyk0603: Check with your pro bono attorney (God Bless Pro Bono attorneys!) about whether you could file for ch 7 bankruptcy and then reaffirm the debt owed to your employer hospital. You could work out a payment plan (which you could afford to do, as your other debts will be wiped away) and it would make you look good to the hospital because you chose to pay them even though you could have gotten the debt discharged. If that's not loyalty, I don't know what is! (Then again, if the hospital fires you for legally getting a debt discharged in bankruptcy, in some states that would form the basis of a wrongful termination claim.) Good luck!

[tigergem]

I know this is difficult, but first try to separate the hospital employer from the hospital creditor in your mind.

Now realize, the hospital will always do what is in its own best interest. As an employer. And, as a creditor.

I would suggest that you do the same, no matter what course of action you take.

Now to partially refute what some posters have implied about speaking to HR. The HR person also has a job. She has to maintain personnel performance. If you are a good worker and an asset to her (or him as the case may be) - so that it is more economical for you to remain on the team than to be replaced, I don't think your HR person is going to care too much about the debt. See, even HR people are usually looking out for what is best for themselves. Hospital debt is a different department and somebody else's problem. Retention and training and performance are what is important to your HR person. Unless your HR person is one of those deeply embedded corporate people who married their job, that is.

[Flamingo]

don't be certain that conversations with HR cannot be divulged to anyone. I don't work in an HR department, but am familiar with HR departments that are "talkative." the HR department works for the company, not the employees, so the people working there would certainly divulge something that effected the company. talking to someone in your companies HR is not like talking to an attorney who you're hiring.

I'm not trying to make anyone paranoid, but please consider who HR works for when talking to them, and don't assume its their job to keep your troubles confidential from whoever is in charge at your workplace if its something that could effect the workplace (which is why you'd be talking to them).

I am very familiar with HR practices and with the privacy laws in place today, you could have someone on a platter if anything you discuss with HR is divulged or if any information from any document in your personnel file leaks out. Someone can be axed for mentioning a name of a client in an elevator. Any conversation you have withi an HR supervisor/rep is confidential and professional HR folks are that - professional if they want to keep their job. Talking to an HR supervisor can be one of the best things one can do if there are personal problems which could affect one's job performance or job. They go through things like this all the time and if the employee is good, does not miss a lot of time, has a good work ethic and is worried about their job, that is a plus for the employee, not a negative to get them fired. But if someone comes in late all the time, takes off every other day, leaves early a lot or calls in sick every Friday or Monday, you are already on a watch list somewhere. If someone values their job and is worried about something that couuld affect them or their job, make an appointment to speak confidentially to your HR manager.

[meateater]

HR works for the employer, and if whatever the employee tells them is an issue for the employer, HR will (and probably must) tell whoever is in charge. Its not the job of HR to protect the employee to the detriment of the employer. suppose an employee tells HR they have a serious substance abuse problem, and said employee is employed driving a truck - it would be a liability issue if HR does nothing, the employee crashes a work truck and harms someone, and it comes out that HR was aware of the problem. The lawyers will say that HR would be negligent to do nothing with such information, and the person hit by the drunk driving a comapny truck, would be suing the company for giving a truck to someone with a known drinking problem.

if you've got a lawyer, ask your lawyer before talking to HR. If you owe your employer money, they've arguably got an interest in your filing, and it might make sense to go to HR to preemptively discuss it (but if the employer is a big place, they might not connect the fact that someone who owes money is also an employee). But if you don't owe the employer any money, bankrtuptcy is your own personal issue, and not something I'd choose to discuss as its rarely in an employees best interest to bring up personal problems, and filing bankruptcy should not effect someone's job performance per se - take vacation days for court and attorney meetings.