Collections on medical bill

Subject: collections on medical bill
Question:

My fiance and I clean house for two very dear friends of ours, Martha and Arnold. They are on a fixed income and receive only social security and because they have worked hard all their lives, they both have pensions too.

My fiance and I think they are being taken advantage of by the collections agency that keeps threatening to sue them. The facts concerning the whole mess is that Martha had eye surgery in both eyes by an eye surgeon. The surgery was completely covered by her health insurance. The eye surgeon TOLD Martha to see an ophthalmologist friend of his for her post-op. Because the ophthalmologist was not a "surgeon", the health insurance company refuses to pay for Martha's ophthalmologist bill of $1,200.00 (By the way the ophthalmologist charged $600.00 PER EYE to look at her eyes for 5 minutes and tell her that the surgery looked great!).

The surgery was approx. 6 months ago and since then a collections agency has gotten involved. The bill is now up to $1,700.00 because the collections agency is charging their fee of $500.00! Arnold says he is going to have to pay it somehow because he is terrified that they are going to garnish his bank account and go after their pensions after they file suit. Can the collections company do that? They won't even back down on their collections fee. We really care about this kind, honest people and would like to know if they have any recourse against any party involved. They won't even have enough to eat for a while if they have to pay this bill. If there is no recourse, I would just like to put my two cents in that it's a SAD day in America when two lifelong, hardworking people have to worry their survival because of a stupid, overpriced insurance bill that should have been paid by the insurance company in the first place!!

Thanks for your help in this matter.

Answer:

They really don't have much to worry about. Their ss checks cannot be garnished for any reason by anybody except the U.S. Government. Tell them that and that they should not even worry about it.

On the other hand, while it may be illegal for anyone to garnish their checks it can and has been done countless times simply because oldsters didn't know that and didn't know how to protect themselves.

Here are some of the things they need to learn and do and that you can do to help them learn.
1. Have them get a digital voice recorder. They can get one at many places such as Target, Radio Shack, Circuit City and more. It don't have to be really expensive so long as it has a USB port. Do they have a computer? If not, help them get one and teach them how to use it. The computer can record phone calls too. If they don't want to do any of that then just have them keep a written diary of all the calls, date, time and phone number. If they don't have caller ID then get one. Those are really cheap if you shop for them.

2. Teach them not to take abuse on the phone and teach them to demand validation of the debt. Teach them that although everybody has a moral obligation to pay their bills it is not a crime to refuse to pay that which you cannot pay. Teach them that the necessities of life are far more important than the bills are. Teach them that they can be sued and they can get a judgment against them for not paying the bill but a judgment is only a court order saying that they owe the money but it is not a court order saying the must pay. The court order saying they must pay is a separate process entirely. Tell them that if they get a garnishment hearing summons or a summons for an assets hearing they must go to those kinds of hearings and then they can tell the judge that they are on SSI and have no other income. That should take care of it.

There are lots of things they can learn from me for free. Give them my phone number and tell them that if they have any questions about their problems I'll be glad to talk to them and try to help as much as I can for free. If and when the time comes they need more help than I can afford to give for free I'll tell them and if they can't afford it they will owe me nothing. I do hope they have a computer and internet access however. Just makes things so much easier.

Bill Bauer
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