Medical Debt: An Untold Truth

Unpaid medical bills have become the largest source of debt that Americans owe collection agencies. JAMA released a study earlier in the year that shows collection agencies are pursuing approximately $150 BILLION in unpaid medical debt. 140 Million Americans report having trouble paying a medical bill. That’s a third of our country.

My organization, Butler Benefits & Consulting has partnered with RIP Medical Debt to abolish millions of dollars of medical debt, right here in my hometown, Amarillo, TX. Last year, which was our inaugural campaign, we raised enough funds to acquire and abolish $1,314,714 of outstanding medical debt here in Amarillo. That impacted 728 local residents.

We have started our second campaign, which will run through the end of 2021. Your help is greatly appreciated. You can CLICK HERE to donate to that campaign, or scan the QR Code below.

Yes, part of the purpose of this blog post was to get the message out about this campaign, but now I’d like to share a story that I believe tells you “Why” this has become such a big deal to my firm, and me personally, and why the issue of medical debt really needs to be discussed openly in all communities across America.

I want to share a story about “Joe” (not his real name), and what is happening to Joe right now. What is happening to Joe has happened to thousands of people, right here in our own Community, and to millions of people around this country. Joe came to me earlier this year after he received a bill from a hospital in the amount of $62,000. To Joe, this is more money than his household earns in an entire year, a great deal more.

Joe had gone to a hospital’s emergency room with pretty severe abdominal pain. There, they discovered that Joe had severe gallstones and would require surgery to remove his gallbladder.

After almost four days in the hospital, Joe was sent home, and it was only a couple of weeks later that the bills started to come in the mail. $62,000, and that was just the hospital bill alone. He also received separate bills from the surgeon and pathologist, but nowhere near what the hospital was attempting to collect. In fact, his surgeon charge was only $2000, and Joe paid the surgeon. The pathologist? Less than $100, and Joe paid him as well. His only outstanding bill was the hospital charge of $62,000.

At this point, you’re probably saying, “Well, he has insurance and will not owe that full amount.” But Joe didn’t have insurance at the time of this surgery, a situation many people find themselves in. For Joe, health insurance was/is cost-prohibitive as well.

Joe reached out to me to see if I was able to help, and I agreed to help him. After Joe signed all of the proper HIPAA paperwork, I reached out to the hospital to request records and ask a few questions. I was immediately met with a condescending attitude from a young lady in the hospital’s finance office who interrupted me several times, one time proclaiming, “Sir, sir…let me tell you what the problem is here. The problem is that “Joe” didn’t do what he was supposed to do.”

“He didn’t do what he was supposed to do. He didn’t buy insurance like he was supposed to do.”

I was astonished. What he was supposed to do? He came to a hospital because he was in severe pain and needed medical assistance. What do you mean? Her reply was, “No, that’s not what I mean. He didn’t do what he was supposed to do. He didn’t buy insurance like he was supposed to do.” Wow…. I was so shocked that in the moment, I really didn’t know how to respond. Since that initial phone call, I have sent out multiple inquiries to hospital officials, most of which have been ignored, including emails directly to the hospital COO and CFO. Finance, in an email, stated they would not deal with me as Joe’s “intermediary”, despite Joe’s rights under HIPAA to appoint someone like me to help him. For the most part, we’ve been ignored.

***For the record: Had Joe purchased health insurance with Blue Cross Blue Shield HMO from the marketplace, a very popular plan in Amarillo, and a plan that the hospital is “in network” with, the hospital bill would have been reduced to $10,100 per their reimbursement contract.

This set off a chain of events with the hospital that are shameful, even predatory in my opinion. You see, Joe offered to pay the hospital $15,500 (a fair price) in order to resolve this bill. Like most people, Joe wanted to do what was right, after all, the quality of care he received was great, and Joe is extremely grateful to the doctors and nurses who brought him back to health. But the hospital refused to accept Joe’s offer, even after we presented evidence his offer was fair and reasonable.

$15,500 was actually MORE than what a few commercial payors pay that the hospital willingly accepts. It is also far more than what the hospital would have collected from Medicare and Medicaid, two programs they participate in as well. Medicare would have paid the hospital approximately $7900 per CMS data submitted by the hospital itself.

A few weeks ago, the hospital turned Joe into collections, and now Joe is being harassed by bill collectors demanding he owes the full billed amount. The hospital did that to him. Joe wasn’t saying he wasn’t going to pay, he was simply saying he wished to pay a fair amount, as any reasonable person would.

It got me thinking about our debt forgiveness campaign with RIP Medical Debt. If Joe is unsuccessful, if we are unsuccessful in getting this hospital to do the right thing, Joe will become one of the thousands locally, millions nationally, that cannot pay a medical bill. It will impact his credit score, he will be harassed for years, it will cause him stress and anxiety that could have been avoided. What this hospital is doing to him isn’t right, and for now, we’re making every attempt to give them the opportunity to do what’s right. We’re contemplating Joe’s next steps in the event they don’t, however.

How many people are being pursued for medical debt as a result of this kind of predatory billing practice? Now there’s a conversation that needs to be had. How many out of the 140 million are in collections over a fictitious bill like Joe’s?

Joe is one of thousands that need help. Our debt forgiveness campaign is one way we can help those who have seen a medical situation turn into a financial catastrophe. I hope you’ll consider making a donation.

This is one reason “why” we sponsor these campaigns. What is happening to people like Joe on the financial side of health care needs to be exposed, and it needs to be addressed. Let me know what you think…..