April 12, 2013- Simple Billing Advice

I would like to preface this post by saying that I am not a financial advisor,  please check with your creditors before you decide to use these tips to make sure they will not cause you to go into collections or have any other negative problems.

These are just simple tips I use to keep us afloat while I am in cancer treatment.

I did find out along my two year journey with Ovarian Cancer that there are a few things you should do to keep a handle on your finances when you are facing an uncertain length of time in medical treatment.

My tips for dealing with the massive and numerous bills that come with a cancer diagnosis:

Don't Pay any bill they send you the first time you receive it.

This is a tough one, I was always told to pay my bills promptly and in full. However, this is a case where if you do pay the bill promptly you may be sorry later.

Here is how I handle a new bill:

1. I check it first to see if it is actually a bill-
You are going to receive a ton of things that look like bills that are not bills. They could be insurance paperwork or a notification saying that the insurance has been filed for. Or they could be duplicate bills for the exact same service and procedure.

2. If it is actually a  bill- check to see if the insurance has paid their portion yet. If not, pay a small amount and call and ask the creditor for a payment plan. Once the insurance has paid, keep paying small amounts until you are sure they have paid in full. At this point you can stay on the payment plan or pay the whole thing off depending on what works for you. Otherwise, you may pay something that the insurance is supposed to pay( and that money will be lost to you forever).

3. If you have multiple bills from one creditor-  be proactive and ask if you can combine all your accounts and make payments. This way you can make sure the insurance pays on everything you are supposed to before you pay anything off.


Check and Double Check each bill:

 Make sure the bill is for the service you actually received. In my experience about 25 % of the bills I received were either duplications or had something incorrect on them. If you are unsure about something call the creditor or your insurance case worker and have them look in to it.

In the case of large procedures or surgeries you have to be especially vigilant- you may receive bills from several different entities for the same procedure. You are obligated to pay for the procedure but, I think they are hoping you will pay the multiple bills instead of just paying for the one procedure. Call and aks what your obligations are.

Get Help:

If you are overwhelmed or unable to pay the bills that are coming in get yourself some help. This does not mean borrow the money or sell the house. The help I am talking about can come from several sources, you want to make yourself a support team that can help you get through this:

A. Find a social worker- hospitals and most cancer centers have social workers on staff who specialize in helping you manage your care. They can help with filing disability if you need it, help with finding grants or programs that may help you, and they can help you navigate your insurance or medicare. All of these services are usually free. If not the American Cancer Society has folks that can also help  you with this aspect.

B. If you are too sick to deal with this at all, enlist someone to be in charge of your financial stuff. This does not mean give them power of attorney, it means having someone assist you so that you can do this together until you are able to handle your affairs again.

C. Make friends with the person at your cancer treatment place who handles the billing,  often these people are the ones who know about all the programs and assistance that is available to you.

Be Proactive

I know bills suck!! And medical bills are the worst because they are usually huge and incomprehensible. Take the process slowly and don't let it worry you or add stress to your life.
At this point healing is what you need to be doing, if you cannot pay, you cannot pay! Don't let debt make you sicker.

If you cannot pay something let the creditors know , sometimes they can " assign your bills" meaning write a portion of it off completely. Other times , they can postpone something until you are able to deal with it.

Keep in mind the creditors want you to stay solvent so that you can pay them- if you go under or declare bankrupcy or become insolvent they will get nothing. So it is in their best interests to help you, sometimes you have to point this out and then they will help you.

It never hurts to ask- and sometimes just asking for assistance yields huge results!!!

Negotiate

No one will admit this but, since the crash of 2008  everything is negotiable!!!

Polite persistent negotiation can yield huge results, I personally saved thousands of dollars by just asking to negotiate my bills.

And just like other negotiations you can negotiate up front if need be (before you do a procedure) or when you get the bill.