Legal Question in Insurance Law in Florida

Injured no health insurance, little savings, can they take your money?

My girlfriend dislocated her shoulder while playing volleyball w/ no health insurance. Her parents health insurance stopped covering her because she had just graduated from college (If your covered through your parents group health insurance most companies will stop coverage after graduating college).Now my girlfriend has to pay this large hospital bill . She is working full time but only making minimum wage and has a lot of expenses. Soon she has an appointment where she will be given a financial evaluation at the hospital to see if she can get any aid in paying the hospital bills (she doesn�t know the total of the hospital bill yet,but she�s guesstimating its going to be over $3,000 because she was sent in an ambulance to the emergency room and took several x-rays etc). She has her lifetime savings in a bank (roughly $3,000 that she was planning on sending to her grandmother in France to help her grandmother pay for an operation she needs).

She can only pay $20.00 p/m towards the hospital bill. She is worried about losing the money in her bank account.During a financial evaluation, like this one, do they ask if you have a bank account? If so will she be forced to pay the hospital bill with the money in the bank account?


Asked on 6/17/09, 1:30 am

1 Answer from Attorneys
Wilhelmina Randtke

Re: Injured no health insurance, little savings, can they take your money?

his bill is legitimate. A hospital cannot refuse emergency treatment, but when that treatment is given the hospital can charge for it. If the bill is not paid the hospital can turn it over to a collections agency and that will be very bad for your girlfriend's credit.

The hospital can garnish a bank account. To do this the hospital will need to get a judgment against you and then will be able to get to the account. Collections is heavily regulated, and some income sources, like social security, are exempt from garnishment. You will get a letter notifying you 60 days in advance of the garnishment, and so will have to opportunity to show some reason why the account shouldn't be garnished.

If the hospital tries to garnish the account, consider running what they have done by a lawyer who does consumer law. Consumer law frequently has ways for someone to collect federal fines if collections laws are violated. If collections laws are violated, you may be able to find an attorney who will represent you in exchange for a percentage of the federal fine. This will not help your girlfriend's credit and will not get rid of the underlying debt.

Your girlfriend should attempt to negotiate a payment plan with the hospital. She may or may not be able to get monthly payments she can afford. If she does not absolutely have to send the money to her grandmother, she could try to offer a large amount in cash now and negotiate for a lower total bill.

The hospital's goal is to get paid for as much of the bill as it can. If someone really can't pay and won't be able to pay in the future (for example, if their income goes up) then that affects what the bank will do to get to that goal.

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Answered on 6/18/09, 9:14 pm


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