Legal Question in Credit and Debt Law in New York
dispute of medical bill
In Feb2000 I had surgery at a NY hospital. I live in PA. I thought the bill had been paid off, through insurance and my portion, through arrangements made, by Feb2001. Last June I received bill collection attempts from the State atty gen. office for a few hundred dollars. I disputed and sent my information. A few months later, i received another bill in the thousands of dollars from same office and they are pursuing judgement, depite my sending insurance info and receipt indicating payment was paid. They are saying there were additional amounts never paid by hospital insurance. I was not aware of these bills. I still do not believe they are valid and that it is not my responsibility if hosp. failed to bill ins. co. Please help!
2 Answers from Attorneys
Re: dispute of medical bill
The happy part is that your surgery was clearly a success. I am sorryt that the matter is now causing anxiety.
While insurance companies sometimnes do their work accurately, they often do not. And the Hospital should re-bill the insurance company, but often they do not.
This is not your fault, but it is your problem. An attorney can help.
The first step is to get the billing records from the hospital and the insurance copmpany and see what is happening by comparing them.
There is a further issue that this is a commercial/consumer/contract matter and the time for them to bring a lawsuit to collect the money will pass soon. They have until 2007 in NY.
Get the documents from the insurer and hospital. It is possible that the hospital is making a simple billing error and you will not need my help.
Once you get the records, give me a call and I will take an hour with you at no fee to try to help you sort it out.
Re: dispute of medical bill
You probably need to contact a New York attorney to review the facts as state laws do vary. The debt may be non-recoverable due to an expiration of the statute of limitations. Or you may be entitled to a defense by you health insurance if they failed to perform a duty they owed you.
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