back in April of this year I had to to pay an unexpected visit to my local ER. This left me with a bill that was largely taken care of, with the exception of the radiologists. They charged several hundred dollars for sitting in a chair for 15 minutes to examine a couple x-rays and CT scan. I tried to negotiate lower charges and lower payments, but to no avail. I tried to pay this bill as best I could, but they were not satisfied as I was unable to meet their monthly minimum payment. They actually returned the check I wrote them. After weeks of going around in circles, the bill was turned over to a collection agency.

I don't have the money to pay the bill at this time, so WhyChat's HIPAA processes is pretty much out of the question. Also, since they are the first collection agency to collect on this debt, it's highly likely they will be able to validate.

so my question is, is it worth it to DV anyway? can the benefits of doing so out weigh the risks? is there really any benefit in doing so?

what do you believe is the best course of action?

When you say that What exactly do you mean?? Did you have insurance that paid the "largely" and didn't cover the radiologist?? Wasn't properly submitted?? Or do you mean something else??

If you had insurance OF ANY KIND that took care of MOST of the bills, get an EOMB ( explanation of medical benefits) from the insurance and find out what was paid, to whom it was paid and IF the radiologist bill had been submitted.

Everything else is premature until you get that data.

hi Why Chat,



The hospital bill was covered by low income assistance. The ER doctors waived their fees. The radiologists hung on tooth and nail.

The radiologist is required by State and Federal laws to accept the same guidelines.

Contact the help department of whichever program you qualified under, you would have/should have received some correspondence from them stating that you were qualified.

Once you verify that the radiologist did NOT submit his claim, and/or did not agree to the program, or, ( as is most likely) WAS paid a small fee by the program, get a copy of whatever correspondence they had with him.

You will have to file a complaint with the proper authority, ( depending on the program, likely Medicaid) against the Dr.

In the meantime, you should send each CRA where the account is reporting this;
http://whychat.5u.com/hipaadisp.html