Do I have to pay this medical bill?

Question

I had a car accident 6 months ago and was unconscious when the ambulance sent me to a hospital. I have full medical coverage but they only pay part of my care when I go to a different hospital. Now I have a bill of a few hundred dollars and it past on to a collection agency. I feel like I should not have to pay this bill since I did not choose to go to that hospital. I do not mean to sound unthankful for the care.
What do you think? Should I pay this bill? Isn't it illegal to bill me for something I did not ask for? This hospital already got paid by my insurance with whatever my insurance was willing to pay.

Answer 1

When someone is unconscious or impaired a thing call impied consent kicks in . It is an area in law that makes the common sense assumption that if a person is unable to consent, but have a medical emergency, .....they would have consented if they could....that is what allows EMS and Drs to treat an unconscious victim, or even to treat a minor for life threatening conditions without their parents present. .......otherwise, if I walk into your house and you are not breathing it would be illegal for me to resucitate you unless you woke up and told me I was allowed to.

Since you were unconscious the EMS crew used implied to consent to assume that you would have asked for medical if care if you could have, would have agreed to the choice of hospital (which most likely would have been the hospital closest to the accident), would have agreed to any and all proceedures they performed on you enroute.

Legally you do not have a leg to stand on. If the law made it possible for a patient to avoid paying any bill they incurred while unconscious based on they would have chosen something different....hospitals and EMS would never be reimbursed for their services on any unconscious victim..

Answer 2

They rendered the service - you owe the bill.

So - if you are having a heart attack - you are passed out - emt's are administering CPR to keep you alive - they take you to the closest hospital where you are admitted into the cardiac care unit and do not die.

According to your argument, you do not owe the bill b/c you did not pick the hospital.

You would have picked on in your network - so the emt's should have dug around your purse, hoped your health ins card was in it -if so - called customer service and asked which hospital was in network (even if it was not the closest). and then taken you to that hospital.

You realize if they did that - you would be dead.

If you are incapacitated - the ambulance usually takes you to the closest hospital that is equipped to handle your injury type.

You owe the bill.

Usually if you pay the hospital a little money each month- they will not turn you over to collections. Since you have been turned over to a collections agency - call them and work out a payment plan.

Answer 3

It's not illegal for them to bill you.

Before it went to collections, you should have talked to their billing department. Typically in an emergency your insurer should pay more than they would for "out of network" normally. Secondly, did you have medical with your car insurance? It should make up any deficit that is there from the amount your insurer wouldn't pick up.
If someone else were at fault, their insurance should be paying things that are not covered.

You may NOT be "in collections" the way most people mean. A lot of hospitals use a collection agency way early in the billing, but you see it says to pay the hospital or contact them for info/disputes. That's not the regular collections where it's pennies on the dollar debt that is sold.

Answer 4

If your Insurance paid the amount prescribed by your policy, then you are responsible to pay the rest. Most insurance plans will give you full coverage in an 'emergency' even when it's not at a facility that would normally be covered. Have you discussed this?

Otherwise, you do owe the money, and you should pay it. Would you rather have ambulances wait to respond until they know if a person has insurance and which hospital they want to be taken to?

Answer 5

What, you *feel* something is wrong with you, and you can't talk, you should be left in the street to die? Sheesh. You think every person who's unconcious needs to be ASKED FIRST? Tons of people would die that way!

Don't be silly. Of course you owe this bill. You DO sound unthankful for the care. When you're unconcious, you CAN'T ask for medical treatment. Just be grateful you can get it anyway, and the people who worked on you, and spent the money for your care are waiting until AFTER you are better to send you a bill.

Your insurance pays some, you pay some. That's how it works. Now go pay your part.

Answer 6

This would normally be a Workers' Compensation claim/issue. I suspect your relative's injury was not reported by the employer to the WC offices. And your father in law surely told the hospital that he was injured at work. This is all very strange! PS: Re MidnightMoon' s comment: You do not have to prove fault in a Workers' Compensation case. That's the founding principle: worker's gave up the right to sue for damages because of negligence and employer's gave up the right to require proof that they were liable (it's a bit more inolved than this but this is the gist of it) It is sufficient for the injury/illness to have "arisen in and out of the course of employment". Unless there is a dispute about whether or not the injury did indeed arise in the course of employment, there is no grounds for turning it down UNLESS the person was under the influence of alcohol or illegal drugs (as mentioned above) or was in the process of committing a crime. PSS for Rye Rye: Thank you!

Answer 7

I'm sure that with you unconscious, the paramedics were more concerned with your health than where you would prefer to be taken. You should pay this bill. They provided a service and you owe them. Why not get a medical bracelet that states where you want to be taken in case of emergency?


I'm quite sure your insurance didn't "choose" for you to have an accident but they still paid their part. Now it's time for you to pay yours.

Answer 8

Emergency should dictate full medical coverage, however does your plan have a deductible or coiinsurance.. You may have to appeal the decision, in writing, to the address on your insurance card

Answer 9

Unfortunately it doesn't matter if you wanted to go to the hospital, they had a duty to take you. And if you don't pay, they will screw up your credit. If you don't care about it that much, just don't pay it.

Answer 10

You have medical coverage with your auto insurance, call them and get this paid.