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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Feb 2009
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    5

    Default Aid for Medical Bills After Being Turned to Collections

    My question involves collection proceedings in the State of: NY

    My son moved to NY last year. He had no job and was staying with friends while he looked for one. A few weeks later he was at an ER and diagnosed w/a kidney stone. His previous employer told him he could stay on the insurance for an extra month but promptly cancelled the insurance when he left the company. He turned in his insurance card to the hospital not knowing he wasn't insured. He now has a job and is living in NY. The bills have been turned over to collections, about $8,000 worth. Is he eligible for any kind of aid at this late date? Every time he tried to ask the hospital, they told him he didn't qualify for any help. He lives pay to pay and is barely existing as it is.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Feb 2009
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    4

    Default Re: Aid for Medical Bills After Being Turned to Collections

    First of all, it was illegal for his previous employer to cancel his health insurance. Under the COBRA Act (this is a federal statute), an employer may not terminate coverage until 31 days after the employee has left the business. So he could seek some aide through his previous insurance carrier. I don't know about the law in NY but in VA, even if a medical bill is turned over to a collection agency, they do not have the right to garnish your wages. Therfore, even if you can't pay the worst that happens is you have outstanding debt on your credit report.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Feb 2009
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    5

    Default Re: Aid for Medical Bills After Being Turned to Collections

    So if he left the company on Oct. 30, 2007 and this hospital incident was Nov. 7, 2007, he still should have been legally insured through this previous employer? We thought legally insurance ended the day the employment ended. We thought she was doing him a favor by agreeing to cover him for another month.

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Apr 2007
    Location
    Il.(near StL,Mo.)
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    5,252

    Default Re: Aid for Medical Bills After Being Turned to Collections

    Quote Quoting sallylong
    View Post
    First of all, it was illegal for his previous employer to cancel his health insurance. Under the COBRA Act (this is a federal statute), an employer may not terminate coverage until 31 days after the employee has left the business. So he could seek some aide through his previous insurance carrier. I don't know about the law in NY but in VA, even if a medical bill is turned over to a collection agency, they do not have the right to garnish your wages. Therfore, even if you can't pay the worst that happens is you have outstanding debt on your credit report.
    First off, we don't know if employee or employer he worked for before moving to N.Y. met the federal COBRA requirements or state version requirements if the state he worked in has a state version of COBRA. It's not true that coverage always has to be continued for 31 days after termination. It's according to the plan document. Also, even when COBRA is offered, it isn't always accepted by the employee.

    Also, if the debtor would get sued & a judgment rendered against them, wages can be garnished for medical debt depending on whether the state allows garnishment of wages. (NY does)

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Feb 2009
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    5

    Default Re: Aid for Medical Bills After Being Turned to Collections

    Is there a way we can find out if the employer met the COBRA requrements? The state he left is PA.

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Apr 2007
    Location
    Il.(near StL,Mo.)
    Posts
    5,252

    Default Re: Aid for Medical Bills After Being Turned to Collections

    Pa. doesn't have a state version. Re the federal version, how many employees did the employer your son work for have (how many full time & how many part time)?

    Do you know if your son was offered COBRA after separation of employment?

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Feb 2009
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    5

    Default Re: Aid for Medical Bills After Being Turned to Collections

    There were 4 full time employees counting the owner and 1 part-time employee. I don't know if he was offered COBRA when he left. He thought he still had one month of insurance left.

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Apr 2007
    Location
    Il.(near StL,Mo.)
    Posts
    5,252

    Default Re: Aid for Medical Bills After Being Turned to Collections

    COBRA did not apply to your son's employer or your son -- the employer needed 20 or more employees.

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Feb 2009
    Posts
    5

    Default Re: Aid for Medical Bills After Being Turned to Collections

    Once it's turned into collections, will they still work with us as far as applying for any type of aid? There's also another aspect to this. When he was in the ER, they made a diagnosis based on bloodwork that they needed to further explore terminal diseases such as leukemia, AIDS, etc. They admitted him overnight. Then they came in the morning and said, "We have good news and bad news. The good news is we misdiagnosed you based on someone else's bloodwork. We couldn't figure out why you didn't have any other symptoms consistent with what we were looking at. The good news is you're not terminally ill." He's talked to the hospital about not being charged for things that were done as a result of the misdiagnosis. They told him no hospital charges were billed to him. But if you look at the itemized bills, he's being charged for things twice like a PET scan at $782 each. My sister-in-law is in medical records and she said they most likely did one at the onset of the visit and the 2nd one based on the misdiagnosis. How can we fight charges that we think are unfair?

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