Legal issues, Anyone know my options?

[Sarthan]

So as the title states I am in a bit of a pickle. I am 21 years old I work a job making around $1800 a month and for healthcare I use my Father's and my step mom's. I recently went to the dentist for a root canal and when I got there they did the whole evaluate your coverage and give you the out of pocket price. I told them since I recently switched physicians my Step Mom's healthcare was locked out for 6 months. I also said my father's should pick up a lot of it. The price of the procedure was $2400. After waiting for awhile they came back with a quote saying that the insurance would cover everything and I need not to worry. I said great lets do this procedure and get me out of pain. So we did the root canal took about two hours. I left the dentist with pain pills and anti-antibiotics. This was roughly two weeks ago.

On my way to work this morning I got a call from my dentist's office saying I owe them $1200 dollars for the procedure. I freaked out and told them they need to look into this and give me a call back. If they call me tomorrow and tell me I owe them can I do anything? I live in Oregon US. Thanks for the help guys/gals!

[obdigore]

So as the title states I am in a bit of a pickle. I am 21 years old I work a job making around $1800 a month and for healthcare I use my Father's and my step mom's. I recently went to the dentist for a root canal and when I got there they did the whole evaluate your coverage and give you the out of pocket price. I told them since I recently switched physicians my Step Mom's healthcare was locked out for 6 months. I also said my father's should pick up a lot of it. The price of the procedure was $2400. After waiting for awhile they came back with a quote saying that the insurance would cover everything and I need not to worry. I said great lets do this procedure and get me out of pain. So we did the root canal took about two hours. I left the dentist with pain pills and anti-antibiotics. This was roughly two weeks ago.

On my way to work this morning I got a call from my dentist's office saying I owe them $1200 dollars for the procedure. I freaked out and told them they need to look into this and give me a call back. If they call me tomorrow and tell me I owe them can I do anything? I live in Oregon US. Thanks for the help guys/gals!

Need to talk to the insurance company.

[Sarthan]

Well I would Obdigore but I knew their policy had me locked out for a 6 month period. So I know with them there is nothing I can do. I don't understand how you can tell someone they are covered then stick a 1200 bill to them.

[benadryl]

man this is life. nothing is easy. if someone says they'll give you $1, they probably will, but only after you write letters, emails, make calls and sign forms to get it. that's how the world works. this is NOT accidental. if they make it difficult on everything, some people just say fuck it and they get to keep money. your bank will do it, insurance companies do it, your bank will do it some more and everyone on earth will accidentally charge you too much and only give it back after you make them. this isn't a legal issue, just a life issue. figure out what happened and go from there. chances are you're on the hook though.

if you have to pay it, set up a payment plan, it would help your credit more than paying it off in one chunk anyway. what you say they said doesn't really matter. truth doesn't matter. it's what you can prove. you can't prove anything. you can plead with them and let them know that you know they fucked you.

[obdigore]

So you knew you were locked out but assumed that insurance would cover it anyway?

That seems like a pretty big mistake.

[Tierbook]

Well I would Obdigore but I knew their policy had me locked out for a 6 month period. So I know with them there is nothing I can do. I don't understand how you can tell someone they are covered then stick a 1200 bill to them.

do you have a recording on them saying it would be fully covered if not your kinda screwed since the burden of proof is upon you

[Rucati]

So you knew you were locked out but assumed that insurance would cover it anyway?

That seems like a pretty big mistake.

Indeed. Not sure why you thought that an insurance company that locked you out for 6 months would cover things for you.

Regardless there's not going to be a whole lot you can do, other than pay for it, you can't take them to court or anything, I mean even if you did and managed to win you'd spend the same in all the fees anyway plus all the extra hassle. There's just not a whole lot you can do, if you can't talk to the insurance company about it your only real option is pay them.

[reef]

After waiting for awhile they came back with a quote saying that the insurance would cover everything and I need not to worry.

do you have a physical copy of this quote? i feel like if you had evidence of this, then you might be able to do something about the $1200 issue you have.

[Sarthan]

do you have a recording on them saying it would be fully covered if not your kinda screwed since the burden of proof is upon you

I have a statement of the recommended treatment and the covered costs.

[prwraith]

So you knew you were locked out but assumed that insurance would cover it anyway?

That seems like a pretty big mistake.

To be fair they did say to him the insurance would cover it all. Though that should have been in writing.

[stockishgsr]

Unless you have proof that there was no out of pocket expense to you, then you are out of luck and need to pay the bill.

[DockyWocky]

Medical debt is one of the few things (debt wise) that won't cripple you. Despite how vehemently they demand you do this or that, just pay them what you can. Even if it's $50 every month. They may not like it, but there's not much they can do about it.

It may ding your credit for a little bit, but long term, as long as you'll be able to pay it back in a realistic period of time (in this case, probably 1-2 years), there won't be any long term consequences. I'm not advocating you stonewalling them and not paying anything, just don't think that its the end of the world.

I've been working in and around medicine for 12 years. I know this seems awful and/or devastating, but its really not that terrible. Just pay what you can, when you can. Talk to them about it. They may even agree to a lesser amount if you can pay it upfront, and/or work with you on it. If not, just pay as you can.

[Sarthan]

I do have the recommended treatment and the covered amount. Which says 0 out of pocket costs.

- - - Updated - - -

Medical debt is one of the few things (debt wise) that won't cripple you. Despite how vehemently they demand you do this or that, just pay them what you can. Even if it's $50 every month. They may not like it, but there's not much they can do about it.

It may ding your credit for a little bit, but long term, as long as you'll be able to pay it back in a realistic period of time (in this case, probably 1-2 years), there won't be any long term consequences. I'm not advocating you stonewalling them and not paying anything, just don't think that its the end of the world.

I've been working in and around medicine for 12 years. I know this seems awful and/or devastating, but its really not that terrible. Just pay what you can, when you can. Talk to them about it. They may even agree to a lesser amount if you can pay it upfront, and/or work with you on it. If not, just pay as you can.

Its not really about the money at this point, I could pay it back in a few months. Its the fact that they looked me in the eye and shook my hand and said there would be no out of pocket costs.

[DockyWocky]

Fair enough. If you have the recommend treatment form, and the covered amount, that may work.

Make sure it doesn't say estimate on it. If it does, you're on the hook for it. Otherwise you can simply refer them to your paperwork, and tell them to take it up with your insurance. Another thing some practitioners do, is bill you for the full amount, because insurance typically takes a while to pay up. If you pay them, then they don't have to worry about getting reimbursed by the insurance, you do. This may be a case of that.

[Sunseeker]

Well I would Obdigore but I knew their policy had me locked out for a 6 month period. So I know with them there is nothing I can do. I don't understand how you can tell someone they are covered then stick a 1200 bill to them.

You can't. Also, "locked out"? Like, you're not allowed to talk to them?

[Xs]

As has been said, you have a somewhat legal document saying that when you agreed to have your face drilled open, you where consenting to it under the pretence of it being taken on your insurance. This alone should be enough to either give them the finger or adequate reasoning for a long drawn out payment plan.

[Sarthan]

You can't. Also, "locked out"? Like, you're not allowed to talk to them?

No, my insurance has some rule when you change physicians you cannot use the coverage for 6 months. (I don't know why.)

- - - Updated - - -

Just filed a complaint with the BBB don't know what that will do for me.

[v2prwsmb45yhuq3wj23vpjk]

For those who don't seem to understand what he was saying with the insurance:

He has two parents that both receive insurance for themselves/their family members. He is covered by two insurance agencies because of this, but one of them was 'locked out' because of a change of physicians. He brought this up before the procedure, telling them that he should have some sort of coverage from one of his parents but not the other. They told him that the entire thing would be covered. Now they are attempting to bill him for half of the amount that they said would be totally covered by the one insurance agency.



OP, if you have the statement and it says on there that all of the cost would be covered, inform them that you don't owe them anything because you agreed to have the procedure done with the pretense of those covered costs. This is just like if a contractor told you it would be $1,000 to fix your wall but then tried to charge you $2,000.

[Sunseeker]

No, my insurance has some rule when you change physicians you cannot use the coverage for 6 months. (I don't know why.)

That makes no sense in the slightest. Isn't the POINT of changing doctors to get appointments sooner rather than later?

[DockyWocky]

OP, if you have the statement and it says on there that all of the cost would be covered, inform them that you don't owe them anything because you agreed to have the procedure done with the pretense of those covered costs. This is just like if a contractor told you it would be $1,000 to fix your wall but then tried to charge you $2,000.

And that would 100% be my answer, depending on two things. 1) He has that piece of paper, showing that insurance would cover all of it; 2) That paper doesn't say estimate on it.

If he doesn't have it, or he does and it says estimate, he's on the hook for it.