Legal Question in Credit and Debt Law in Pennsylvania
College student taken to hospital due to intoxication
My daughter, (a freshmen), attended her soon to be university for orientation prior to school starting. During orientation, using poor judgment, she and others attended a party and she became severely intoxicated. One of the RA's called an ambulance and took her to the hospital which she was released later that night. No one from the school called me until after she arrived back at school the next day. Neither I nor she gave permission for treatment; however, she now has a bill over $2,500. and we are currently checking to see if our insurance will cover this cost. If not, are we legally responsible for treatment when we did not agree to same. Her father and I cannot financially afford this bill and she as a student does not have income. Please advise me as to what if any we are responsible for. Her bill has been sent to a collection agency as the school did not forward this bill to my daughter. We called and told them we are working to resolve this matter. Your help in this matter is very much appreciate and I would like to thank all of you for providing a site such as this. Sincerely, D. Roch
1 Answer from Attorneys
Re: College student taken to hospital due to intoxication
Stop and think, what would you rather, that you get hit with obscene bill for emergency medical serices or that your daughter did not get medical treatment she needed? I know from experience (others, not my own) that alcohol poisoning is real and dangerous. Failure to get treament right away can be fatal.
The ambulance and hospital personnel normally must get permission from an individual if the person is competent (aware and of age) before rendering treament. In this case the patient was in a state that was an exception to that rule. She could neither consent to treatment or refuse treatment.
The hospital can enforce the bill for services for those services were necessary for emergency treatment. My guess is that this will be covered by insurance but don't forget about the deductible. Even if this amount is not covered by insurance there is little recourse to avoiding this bill. I would strongly suggest that once insurance coverage has been determined you deal with the matter as quickly as possible. Negotiate payments with the hospital if you can. Do not let this matter hit the credit record or the credit record of your daughter. You can even negotiate this with the hsopital.
But at least, hopefully, she will never drink too much again, if anything. If you think about it, the amount spent on the hospital bill may even be less than the amount she would have spent on alcohol had she not had this wonderful learning experience. Seriously, Im very glad that your daughter is alright. Hopefully she learned her lesson and the price doesn't seem to be too high. think about what didn't happen.
Good luck, and I'm glad that your daughter got through this well.
If I can be of assistance on this or any other legal matter please contact me.
Regards,
Roger Traversa
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