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Medical Bill Assistance

You aren’t alone in seeking assistance paying your medical bills. Add up the costs, and it’s easy to see how a few medical bills can quickly turn into devastating debt:

• Medical care costs are at an all-time high.
• Medical treatment can cause you to miss time at work, lowering you income at a time when you need it most.
• Medical expenses can continue long after you’ve recovered: Prescription drugs, rehabilitation and follow-up doctor visits can continue to be expensive for weeks, months or even years after your initial illness or injury.

Even if you’re well insured, many of these costs may be passed along to you. To make matters worse, if you are late on your payments your bills could be sent to a collection agency. Then you’ll be forced to fend off creditors when you should be focusing on getting well.

Fortunately, many people have been in your shoes before. Here are some common actions you can take to try to reduce your medical bills.

Pre-bill payment plan

If you know that you may have difficulty paying for your medical bills you could discuss options with your doctor. On occasion, doctors or hospitals may offer you a discount for paying all of your bill at once.

The problem with this approach is that you’ll need to come up with a large sum of cash to cover your costs. You could put your medical bills on a credit card, but then you would be paying for treatment twice, since the interest rates would cause you to pay significantly more over time.

Negotiation

If you are struggling to pay your medical bills, then you could try negotiating with your hospital or doctor. In some cases, your health care provider might put you on a payment plan and allow you to pay your bill over time instead of all at once.

This approach can be difficult for many reasons. First, if you have a regular family doctor that you are seeing for check-ups and a hospital that provided extra care, you may have to negotiate with multiple parties.

Also, it’s up to you to do all the leg work. So instead of recovering fully, you’ll be trying to track down the right people at the hospital and negotiate and haggle with them.

Bankruptcy

Because your medical bills are considered unsecured debt, they can be dealt with swiftly and completely in a Chapter 7 bankruptcy.

During a Chapter 7 bankruptcy, all of your unsecured debts are completely discharged. So along with your medical bills, any credit card debt you have will also be cleared. Bankruptcy can also put a stop to phone calls, letters, lawsuits and other harassment from creditors.

If you need to get control of your debts, and have some income, your medical bills could be reduced and ordered in a Chapter 13 bankruptcy. In this case, the courts would do what your negotiations may not: Cut your debt and put you on a repayment plan. During this repayment period you would also be protected against creditor harassment, repossession and lawsuits.

Bankruptcy May Help You Clear Your Medical Debt

If you are worried about how you will pay your medical bills, and if you’re struggling with credit cards or your mortgage, bankruptcy can help you eliminate your debt.

What better way to recover than with a fresh start for your finances? Filing bankruptcy can eliminate your medical bills, while still protecting your property and your future.

A local bankruptcy lawyer can explain, in detail, how bankruptcy can affect your medical bills and other types of debt. Your lawyer will also be able to answer any other questions you have and take you through the process.

Fill out the free case evaluation form on this page and we’ll connect you with a local bankruptcy attorney right away.

More medical bill assistance:

• How medical bills affect your credit score
• Medical Bill Help Main
• Debt Relief Home