How Nicole Negotiated Medical Debt: Listen and Learn!

I'm Nicole Lapin, the only financial expert you don't need a dictionary to understand. It's time for some money rehab.

All right. Last year, you might remember I had a medical scare. I was all of a sudden reading a script and felt like I was seeing double and then I laid down for a second and I was like, I'm fine. I'm fine. And then all of a sudden I started getting numb and it was my arms. And then I thought maybe that's just a fluke. It kind of spread and my speech started soaring.

And that's when I got really scared. I knew something was wrong. And because of how I was feeling, I couldn't see, I couldn't speak at that point. I couldn't drive myself to the hospital. I mean, maybe I could have called an Uber or Lyft, but I didn't want to pass out in a car with a stranger. So I called 911 and I rode in an ambulance. I spent the day in the ER. And over the next several weeks, I had to take tons of tests and was under doctor's orders to take at least a week off of work.

I was scared. Honestly, I had no idea what was going on with my body or my brain. I WebMD the heck out of all of this. And it just scared me more as it always does. Also, I think we can all agree that there's nothing more stressful than someone telling you, especially a doctor, not to be stressed. It's like when someone tells you not to think about something, obviously you start thinking about that thing, right? So there I was trying not to be stressed about my health or work. And then

money because the bills started rolling in because of all of these special tests and doctors. One of the biggest bills I got was for the ambulance, which was around two grand. That felt like an outrageous amount of money for emergency care. So despite doctor's orders, I did what I do whenever I feel like I'm being overcharged. I went to dispute the bill. I called up the ambulance company and of course I recorded it. Here's how it went.

Thank you for calling PMS services. May I have the account number you are calling about? Yes, certainly. How are you? I'm good in you. OK, good. Great. Doing well, the account number is OK. Thank you for the account number. Thank you for calling your being. Who does your speaker today? You have such a great voice. This is Nicole.

Who do I have the pleasure of speaking to? My name is Mark. Give me your okay. Hi, Mark. Nice to meet you. Nice to meet you too. May I call you by your first name? You certainly can. Oh, okay. Thank you, Nicole. Nicole, may I have a good phone number case? We get disconnected. Absolutely 3-1-0. Oh, okay. Got a layer and a lot of cell phone. It's a cell phone. Okay. And patient's date of birth. 3-7-8-4. And no other address.

It is okay. All right. And thank you for that. Thank you for verifying that. And how can I help you today? I received a bill for $2,000 for my ambulance service, provided on 81523. Do you know if that's been submitted to insurance?

Okay, let me take a look here. Okay, the claim is filed to your insurance on October 19th of this year. We have to allow about eight weeks for processing. So that should come back right before Christmas by December 19th. Okay, so I don't know anything right now. Right now, as far as boy knows, because we're processing with your insurance.

And we'll know more around December 19th or after. OK, so do you have any idea of how much they would cover? That I don't know. Your insurance can give you more insight into that. Normally they say I can tell you they think 80%. But I really could. That's going to be about the best that we could do on our end. OK.

Uh, and I just want to make sure that this isn't being sent to collections because that's what the notice says. Okay. On that. That's a little more button by, um, they do that to make you do just what you did today. Give us a call. Uh, you've got the first of three. So you're going to get two more. Okay. Um, what may I make a suggestion for you, Nicole? Please do. Okay. Enjoy your Thanksgiving.

and check back with us before Christmas and we'll let you know what's going on with the account. Okay, great. So the bark, the little bark, uh, notices that I'm getting, I guess, to use your terminology. That's just to scare me. Well, just to get you a call in, uh, you know, hey, they do that with billing. Um, you know, it typically can't go to collections yet, but

You know, we just got, just got the insurance. That's your first invoice. So no, you're not, you're not going to collection that back. No. Okay. I mean, we just got through Halloween. Like, I don't want to be, keep getting scared, you know, for no reason. No, you're not going to keep getting scared. Like it takes eight weeks. So we won't know anything until right before Christmas. Okay. Do you suggest that I call the insurance company?

You can call them and they can let you know where they are and process it. Okay. Okay. All right. And then is there a different fee for ambulances that don't turn on their lights and siren? No, because they didn't do that. Really? I was really upset. I was like, I think I'm dying guys, but they were like, you have a pulse. It's fine.

Okay, so like why did I even take the ambulance like can I dispute that because they didn't like they didn't get me there any faster I mean if you felt like you didn't dispute. Yes, all right. Let's do it Okay, you got to put that in writing and a fax that in a fax Mark Yes, where the heck do you find a fax around here?

If you don't, if you don't, okay, well, they prefer us to tell facts first. I can give you an email where you can send it. Yeah, like welcome to the 21st century. Okay, that's well. Let me know when you're ready. Oh, I'm ready. So they, so, okay, so this is fascinating protocol. So they send notices to scare people into calling and then giving facts.

numbers to dissuade people from sending stuff in because where the heck do you find a fax until you have to ask for like a real mode of communication that we use in this day and age. Is that right? Yeah, unfortunately. Well, thank you for your help. Okay, what's the email address?

Uh, is that a real website? Digitechcomputer.com. Okay, great. Okay. All right. Great. And then what do I put in this email? Um, basically what you told me. Okay. So I don't have to like have a particular form. No, they don't really have a form. Okay. So I just write like my account number, the date of service and say like to whom it may concern your account number in the subject.

Okay. And just saying what you explained it to me, explain it in the body. Okay. Okay. So, okay, great. So just say, I don't think I should be charged for this because nobody put the sirens on. Like, right. Thank you. Goodbye. Okay. Anything else I could do through there? Um, no. So if I send this email, does it disrupt the chain of submission to the insurance?

Okay. All right. Sounds good. Is there anything I should know? Any other pro tips? All right. Well, you've been so helpful. Thanks, Mark.

So can I just say this was so confusing to me, which is another reason calling is always a good idea. I didn't realize this was going to be submitted to my insurance. It was a bill that was sent to me. The instinct is to just pay it, right? So if I had just paid it, I would have missed out on insurance coverage. But anyway, right after I got off the phone, I sent an email to my new friend, Mark, and I wrote

To whom it may concern, I just spoke with your representative Mark and informed him that I would like to dispute this bill from 101723 as the ambulance did not put its lights or sirens on. I did not get there any earlier and it was more stressful, not less. Thank you. Nicole.

Yep, I was ready for a fight. And then days later, I heard back, hello, I'm confirming we received your dispute. I have sent this to be reviewed. Thank you. And then the manager's name. Months later, nothing happened. So I followed up and obviously still had my game based on and said hello. I did not hear back on this. I assume that is because you waved this erroneous torch.

And then they turned a friendly corner and said, hello, I will be happy to assist you with your inquiry. I am seeing that there is a balance on the account. The balance is $344.47. It looks like your insurance paid $1,617.53 of the total charged. The remaining balance is the patient responsibility.

Okay, so this is a huge improvement. Of course, my goal is to make zero dollars here and I always try to shoot my shot. The worst they could say is no. So I said thank you. I am disputing my part of the charge as stated below. The siren was not on. I don't believe I should be responsible for anything.

After that, I didn't hear back. Until I did. The ambulance companies sent that debt to collections. Then I started getting phone calls from debt collectors, and while I believe in negotiating every unfair bill, I certainly don't recommend waiting until that debt goes to collections. If you wait that long to pay a debt, your credit score can be affected, and we definitely don't want that.

But if you do talk to a debt collector, you should know that you can negotiate that debt, which is what I did. My debt was for $344.47. But again, my goal was to try and pay nothing, which at that point wasn't going to happen without digging my credit score. But I could try and pay less than what I owed, because again, on principle, I didn't and don't think I should have paid anything. The siren was indeed off. I essentially could have taken an Uber or a Lyft and it wouldn't have been too

grand, it probably would have been 75 bucks. So that's what I tried to pay. The debt collector of course tried to get more and we met closer to what I was getting at and settled for around 100 bucks. Remember, it is the debt collector's job to get anything back, even pennies on the dollar. Oftentimes they do have approval to settle for a lower number. I mean, think about it. If I think someone is going to give me nothing back, I would certainly rather take something versus nothing. And that something is exactly what you should aim to pay.

For today's tip, you can take straight to the bank. In a medical emergency, you're not going to call the insurance company or you shouldn't to understand what's covered. Let's just be realistic about that. So I recommend finding some time when you're not in the middle of an emergency to call your insurance company and find out what is covered is an ambulance covered is an overnight hospital state covered. Are these things covered out of state? What about internationally? Knowing this information before you need to use it will help you make sure you don't have to have a fight with the ambulance company in the first place.

Money Rehab is a production of Money News Network. I'm your host, Nicole Lapin. Money Rehab's executive producer is Morgan Lavoy. Our researcher is Emily Holmes. Do you need some money rehab? And let's be honest, we all do. So email us your money questions, moneyrehabatmoneynewsnetwork.com to potentially have your questions answered on the show or even have a one-on-one intervention with me and follow us on Instagram at Money News and TikTok at Money News Network for exclusive video content.

And lastly, thank you. And seriously, thank you. Thank you for listening and for investing in yourself, which is the most important investment you can make.