Hospital bill, workers comp & health insurance?!
Question:
Hospital bill, workers comp & health insurance?
On april 2006 I sprained my ankle at work and went to the ER. The hospital made me fill out the workers comp form, which I did. I have health insurance trough my job so I thought that I was covered anyway. I did not know that I was supposed to give my employer the workers comp form so I never did. At the hospital I had X-Rays and a bandage for my ankle. At first I was billed $83.00 which I did not pay because I thought that the hospital was going to contact my employer about the bill (workers comp). When a collection agency called I called the hospital to pay the debt and they told me that they had written off the debt as bad debt and I could not pay it because they had turned it over to the collection agency. I told the collection agency that the injury happened while working and they never called again and I never paid (this was like 6 months ago).Now I received a bill (last week) for $1,302 with two different acct # and two different dates. What should I do? Bill my insurance?
Answers:
The hospital sold your debt to a collection agency for literally a few pennies on the dollar. Once you told the collection agency it was a W/C case they know there is no money in it to pursue the collection.
I would contact the Better Business Bureau and file a claim, contact your local TV station that might due a story on your problem and last but not least contact a Attorney and have them write a nasty gram to both the hospital and the collection agency. NOTE: Who ever put the negative information on your credit report is the only agency that can remove it.
Remember... the squeaky wheel gets greased and no business wants negative publicity, especially over $83.00.
P.S. By law it is unlawfull to bill your insurance if it is a Workers Comp. claim. It sucks and I too learned this the hard way!
GOOD LUCK!