Avoid Medical Collections with $10.00 Payments?

[AllenChicago]

If a person has a high-deductible plan, but doesn't have the funds to pay that deductible, OR, has no health insurance at all..can he/she send the medical provider(s) $10.00 per month to avoid collections?

I've been hearing this for years from agents, managers and clients, but none of them have actually done it, or known of anyone who has. Is this a law, or an urban-legend myth?

Medical forums contain posts from lots of people who swear they're paying $10.00 per month (or some other really small amount) for life. But I can't find anything definitive from a legal standpoint for Illinois. Can anyone here point me to an official source on this subject? If so, thanks in advance!

-Allen in Chicagoland

 

[STIBROKER]

I am doing it now on several of the kids.......

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
and this one is from when my twins were born....

 

[Mark]

Just make sure to vote for Obama next election and he will take care of you.

 

[AllenChicago]

I am doing it now on several of the kids.......

OK...thanks for the quick reply STI Broker. Now, if I can locate the actual law that allows this, it will; 1.) Make selling high deductible plans even easier. 2.) Give me less ammunition for countering objections from people who balk at buying health insurance for this reason. A MIXED BAG.

-Allen

 

[STIBROKER]

I trully do not believe there is such a law....I have heard this in the past and have looked.....as I explain to my clients "health insurance is a membership card to get you into a private club they call a hospital.They do not know if you are paying $1 for that card or $700....all they know is that if they lay out $500,000 on you they are going to paid a bulk of it." ....now if you need a surgery scheduled you will have to do some negotiating up front to get it done...which is if I give you $2000 now can I get in and have it all repriced by the insurance company and go from there...now in case of an emergency...like the arm ex-ray they will treat you with no money up front.......then you just let the dust settle.....

OK...thanks for the quick reply STI Broker. Now, if I can locate the actual law that allows this, it will; 1.) Make selling high deductible plans even easier. 2.) Give me less ammunition for countering objections from people who balk at buying health insurance for this reason. A MIXED BAG.

-Allen

 

[dgoldenz]

Someone I know at a hospital in the payments department. She says some people will come in there with $5 in spare change every month while paying off their $10k bill.

 

[LGilmore]

"Now, if I can locate the actual law that allows this, it will; 1.) Make selling high deductible plans even easier. 2.) Give me less ammunition for countering objections from people who balk at buying health insurance for this reason"

You know this is an awful lot of busy work so you can sell to nonprospects.

You shouldn't have to talk a person into health insurance, because are you going to have to give a pep talk every premium due?

Some people think $5 a month is too much to pay. Show them their options, explain them and if they feel the cheapest of premiums is still too much, say goodbye.

Washington state requires a stop loss or max out of pocket, are the plans you're selling doing the same? If yes, point that out.

But realize the people who don't see a value in insurance at what ever price is not a target market. If they are giving you objections beyond a question or two, you don't have a sale.

 

[leevena]

I am not an attorney, but I agree with earlier post that there is probably no such law anywhere.

Just about any medical provider will allow some kind of payment plan, some have credit source located inside office, access to welfare type funds, others will allow you a recurring payment plan. What I would suggest is that the patient ask up-front for not only payment options available, but for a cash discount. I know of one carrier payor that reimburses medical providers in a 1-3 day turnaround. In exchange for that speed, the provider ends up discounting the bill about 60%, give or take a few percentage points. I have also seen situations where asking to pay cash, whether you have insurance or not, will result in the provider discounting their price significantly. Depending on the premium cost, there have been times where I did not enroll in dental at work (before we had kids and after they left the house) because it was cheaper. When we did have a visit, we paid cash and received decent discounts (40-50%) relatively quickly. I did it for braces once, and got a 50% discount on a $4k bill, even with insurance.

Good luck. Hope this helps.

 

[somarco]

Docs and hospitals are not banks and all are getting squeezed now under the Obama recession. EMTALA does require ER's to stabilize you regardless of ability to pay. Beyond that, they are not obligated to do squat.

If you owe a lot of money and truly cannot pay the provider will accept anything before writing it down or writing it off.

But you can also bet they have attorneys willing to sue if you have assets and will turn you over to collections in short order.

As for the $10/month plan, some docs will take chickens and cows in exchange for treatment but that only works in KY and WV.

 

[AllenChicago]

L.Gimore,

Our leads are business owners who have the money to buy insurance and the vast majority do have health insurance. It's just that some of them are smart in their business operations, but need educating in the workings of the medical world and health insurance.

But I agree with you completely regarding objections from people who don't have health insurance. Even though they tell our telemarketing department that they want want a call/quote, they come up with objections like, "The hospital has to treat me and, duh, I can just send them $10.00 a month to keep them off my back!". Naturally, these folks aren't serious and I get them off the phone ASAP. I just wanted to find out if that "$10.00 per month" thing was a fallacy was an objection that could be overrruled...perhaps allowing the conversation to continue.

But, I can use the minimal payment plan solution when showing higher-deductible health plan solutions. More and more of our clients are buying $10,000 deductible policies coupled with add-on's for Critical Illness and Injury treatments. They love the prospect of a greatly reduced premium, but have a hard time with the potential for $10,000+ hospital bills after a gall-bladder (etc.) operation. Knowing that this bill can be easily paid is just another way to allay their anxiety over the high-deductible during the sales presentation.

Thanks to all who have made positive contributions to my question, thus far!

-Allen

"Now, if I can locate the actual law that allows this, it will; 1.) Make selling high deductible plans even easier. 2.) Give me less ammunition for countering objections from people who balk at buying health insurance for this reason"

You know this is an awful lot of busy work so you can sell to nonprospects.

You shouldn't have to talk a person into health insurance, because are you going to have to give a pep talk every premium due?

Some people think $5 a month is too much to pay. Show them their options, explain them and if they feel the cheapest of premiums is still too much, say goodbye.

Washington state requires a stop loss or max out of pocket, are the plans you're selling doing the same? If yes, point that out.

But realize the people who don't see a value in insurance at what ever price is not a target market. If they are giving you objections beyond a question or two, you don't have a sale.