Suprise bill - pay or not
Visited stanford health care clinic in bay area for a flu kind ailment and doctor took a sample and did covid tests. Previously my insurance always covered covid tests but it turns out I was charged $320 from my pocket for it (after insurance paid $600). I was told I can either pay the full amount or ask to waive it based on financial hardship. No documents needed to prove. What should I do? #insurance #aetnappo #surprisebill TC: 180K
Pay it or they will chase you.
Ok, but they said there will be no background or credit check if I claim I’m unable to pay it. Thoughts?
Then, you can try and tell them you are unable to pay. I assume they will ask basic questions like your house income although documents are not required. In either way, you would want to have a conclusion. If you just do not pay it without an agreement with them, they may transfer it to a third party collecting company and they will chase you.
Welcome to healthcare in USA lol. Love it when immigrants like me get their first shock like this. Did you think going to a clinic hospital was gonna cost the same money as in India or Europe!
Thanks sir. Any advice?
Hsa is your friend. Always put max in hsa as you can because you save taxes on that. If you spend less than you need , you can invest that hsa money. If you have cash and credit cards to pay your expenses you can leave the hsa money investments alone since they are not taxed on capital gains. So the money is tax free and grows tax free. Just spend your savings instead of using the hsa and then once you’re older your hsa becomes a regular retirement account. You can reimburse those expenses at any time from hsa.
Pay it and move on. Next time, get the cost from the insurance company ahead of time or move to a plan with a lower copay.
Copay is $15. While my deductible is $300. But for tests, it counts towards deductible unfortunately.
Employer doesn’t have any better plans than this