Medical Debt Help
We Fight Medical Bills – We Defend Patients!
Medical debt is difficult to fight. You need to have a good argument and reason. If you do, we can try to reduce the debt, if you are pre-lawsuit (no lawsuit has been filed against you) or a judgment has already been obtained. Please note, we will not review your medical costs and see what we come up with. You must contact us with your basis for reducing or removing the debt and we will see if we agree with that basis. You can use the below as a guide to see if legal reasons for debt reduction exist. If we accept your case, our legal fee will be a flat fee and contingent on Debt Resolution*. The debt must be at least $1,500.00 for us to consider handling the matter.
You Only Pay a Legal Fee if Your Debt is Reduced or Removed
Below are three common sources of medical debt, and ways to dispute the debt. There may be other relevant laws and additional ways to fight medical bills; the below is not meant as an exhaustive list of options:
- 1. Hospital emergency room, with no insurance
-Like with any bill, confirm that all services on your bill are accurate.
-Ask the hospital billing dept. to reduce the amount, due to financial hardship.
-Ask the hospital billing dept. for a payment plan, due to financial hardship.
-If there is true financial hardship (to be proven) and the hospital rejects request, contact an attorney.
-Check State laws that may help.
If charges go beyond the medical services you recieved and you are not getting a response from the hospital, contact an attorney.
If charges are legitimate, you will, likely, need to agree to pay some of it in order to negotiate the bills lower. It will be difficult to negotiate if you want to pay nothing, at all.
2. Hospital emergency room, with insurance
-Federal law- No Surprises Act: Facility can’t charge for an out-of-network provider in an in-network facility for emergencies.
-Check your bill to confirm services are accurate as provided if you have a high deductible.
(note: Be aware of your hospital and emergency co-pays, and if deductibles apply. Your hospital co-pays may differ from general medical service co-pays.)
-If an attending ER doctor sends his or her own separate bill, call your insurance company and report it. If that doctor is in-network, he or she cannot send a separate bill without permission from the insurance company. Call an attorney if the problem persists.
-Check State laws.
This category includes necessary charges (stabilization or related services) for hospital stays or services that last or go beyond the emergency room. These should all be in-network fees (and you want to ensure the accuracy of bills, if you have a high deductible).
3. Doctor’s office
If uninsured: Your medical provider is required to provide an estimate of service cost, and then meet the price.
If insured: No out-of-network providers can be used without notice. For example, if your in-network doctor sends your specimens to an out-of-network lab without your knowledge and you get a bill, the doctor should pay that. If this applies to you and the doctor is unresponsive, call your insurance company and an attorney if it’s for a significant amount that you want to dispute.
All the above should be tried before a lawsuit is served on you, to preserve any leverage you have. Do not wait until there is a lawsuit or a judgment and your costs and risks rise. If you have an argument based on the above, feel free to call us to maximize your leverage.
Good negotiation – can stop litigation
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Notes:
*Debt Resolution = An agreement by a creditor or counterparty in accordance with the attorney-client engagement letter’s definition of “Debt Resolution”, even if client fails to accept or pay the settlement amount or terms that he or she requests this firm to secure.
Charges of third parties – such as overnight mail services and filing fees- are to be approved and paid by client.
If we take the case with the goal of reducing the amount of an obligation, you will be required to place our legal fee in our attorney escrow account to be delivered to us upon a counterparty/creditor agreement of Debt Resolution on the terms set forth in our attorney-client engagement letter. If there is no Debt Resolution, the legal fee will be returned to client.
*If litigation is eventually pursued, as agreed by all parties, it would be on an hourly-fee basis.
*Individual case facts will cause different case outcomes.
*If we are retained by you, we will deal with collection agencies and collection laws.