Hospital threatening to send me to collections for not paying while my financial assistance application is still processing?

[u/air-sign-dominant]

Hi guys,

I went to an Ascension urgent care last October to get a splint put on what I had just found out was a broken wrist. I got a bill for $400 after insurance. It isn’t a lot, but I had JUST started a new job in a new city after graduation and didn’t have any money after moving, so I applied for financial aid. I got approved at the main hospital I went to for surgery, physical therapy, etc for 90% assistance. However, ascension had a separate, complicated application process that involved printing out multiple forms, compiling documentation and mailing it to them.

I sent out my application in early December. However, I kept getting “bill overdue” emails from them so I just called them to make sure it had been received and processed. They told me it had been processed Jan 10th and I could expect a decision after 60 days of that, but that they recommended I start making payments because otherwise they would send me to collections after the next billing statement (it’s the 4th one I received so far)

Is this allowed? I feel like it doesn’t make sense to make me make payments before I even know how much I will end up owing. Will they actually send me to collections so early? I had another hospital bill from 2022 that didn’t threaten collections until literally 2 years later (long story, I changed addresses and they didn’t do electronic statements)

[u/MaeQueenofFae]

Ask them to please put your balance due into ‘Pending’ status while your application is still under consideration. Pending will place your account in a hold, and keep it out of collections.

[u/air-sign-dominant → u/MaeQueenofFae]

That’s what I called to ask about, and they refused to do so. They just told me to start making payments, which confused me because hypothetically if someone ended up getting full assistance, would they get refunded for what they paid?

[u/MaeQueenofFae → u/air-sign-dominant]

No. And if you could afford the payments, you wouldn’t need the Charity Care. Call again, you might get someone who is actually competent.

[u/shit69ass → u/air-sign-dominant]

this happened to me and they did refund me the payments I made while waiting for my financial assistance to process.

[u/Known_Paramedic_9503 → u/air-sign-dominant]

Call back and ask to speak to a supervisor. That’s what I did when I had this issue. It stopped everything until a decision was made on financial assistance