Short version. My friend and his wife are self employed. They’re unable to afford insurance at the moment. His wife just had a very bad situation that required a hospital stay. In addition, there are many follow-ups and a potentially worse medical situation on the horizon. The temporary Medicaid she qualified for, has just abruptly stopped before one of the follow-ups. They wouldn’t give them a reason why. That said, they don’t have the money to afford insurance, obviously don’t have the money to pay the full prices. Are there any options for people in this situation? He is worried that he will lose his wife as her condition seems to be getting more and more serious and the bills will get more and more out of control. Any suggestions or direction I can pass along to him would be greatly appreciated. Thanks guys.
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Yes, at most hospitals, they have an application process for financial help and give discounts for those without insurance. At least our large organization does. I'm not sure who to contact but maybe the doctor's office where they've established care.
Most, if not all, hospitals have a social services department and a Patient Ombudsman (ie patient advocate) to assist with the application process for getting patients enrolled in whatever programs will cover some of the bills. Money for the hospital that way. But they usually start targeting you when you show up at the ER with no coverage. The first attempt at getting a 3rd party payor usually starts then.
Weirdly providential that this should come up - just the other day a coworker told me about his wife’s health situation, wherein doctors were trying to figure out a mysterious medical episode she was going through and they wanted to run a battery of different tests that were extremely expensive. Their health insurance balked at the costs and told my coworker that they wouldn’t cover any of it. Fretting about the price (>$15K I think) and trying to negotiate with the Hospital to reduce their costs, a staffer mentioned to him that since their Hospital was a nonprofit, he could request a billing amnesty if their financial condition warranted it. Although my coworker and his wife are quite financially secure, they also have a huge family (think Catholic) with kids in college and others about ready to go and thus are on a very tight budget. They applied for the amnesty and to their surprise it was approved.
Your situation sounds much worse. The key here is whether your friend’s Hospital is non-profit, although for-profit Hospitals have similar forgiveness programs.
Here’s a link that might help explain things: https://dollarfor.org/charity-care/
Good luck, God Bless, and hope this helps.