Financial Assistance

This is not intended as advice.

Diagnosed in 3/17, my head was still spinning months later when bills started arriving. I neatly placed them in a pile to review at the end of the year, reasoning that I would need to double check all the insurance company's work and the billings against my yearly deductible – at the end of the year.

When I tried to sort through it at the end of the year, I found many billing practices impenetrable (e.g. bills for doctors I don't recognize in my insurance reports, but not referenceable by the hospital invoice), so I put it off for a few more months. Eventually, I satisfied myself that things were mostly handled properly and to this day I have every intention of getting back to paying those bills. But I learned by calling each creditor that most were happy to cut a deal on the spot, and it was clear that many of them might be ignored entirely.

In year 2 of continuing treatment, sometimes the provider comes on with a bill. This is my "current provider" so when they present a bill, they get paid. I also grew weary of checking off on deductible attribution review each and every time. By this year's end, I will probably have paid about 8-9k on 15k in deductibles. I'm guessing 200k in treatment. I'm sure I will work out the balances eventually, although I am not really credit-rating sensitive. If you are sensitive to credit rating fluctuations, then work directly and diligently with creditors to let them know you care about them.

Bills keep coming, phone calls too. Give yourself the space to ignore bills for a while.

Practices vary nationwide, but medical creditors are not usually super agressive. I haven't even gotten a lawyer letter yet.

If you are really concerned about medical bills sinking your financial ship, look at Chapter 13 bankruptcy. It will at least help you understand the creditor's point of view. (which is why rush to chase medical debtors into bankruptcy protection?) With Chapter 13, you can freeze creditor actions, and work out an affordable repayment plan (often less than 100 cents on the dollar).

You want to talk to a bankruptcy specialist, and they will probably show you why it is not necessary to file at all. (NACBA.org) A Chapter 13 plan is a court supervised repayment plan, you only need court supervision to make a repayment scheme when one or more creditor is behaving aggressively, or you just can't pay off 100% despite belt tightening.

I suspect most provider's business models are not probably not dependant on me paying anything.

But don't take that as advice. I'm a lawyer and bankruptcy professional, and therefore legally prohibited from telling people to pick and choose creditors or to not pay debts.

I'm not prohibited from suggesting you look at crediors in the same way they look at you, i.e just another faceless, nameless account.

Cancer is hard enough as it is, don’t let the money stress make it worse. At the end of the day, it’s your life at stake and much to our chagrin, the big C is expensive to treat.

Be thankful that you have insurance at all, but hopefully you’ve got a decent plan that doesn’t give you a hard time about anything. Thankfully all of my treatments have been covered and I havent had to argue with anyone.

Make sure you speak those you owe. Meaning get on a payment plan with the hospital for your remaining bill, find out how the individual offices and labs would like you to negotiate repayment. Just don’t ignore it completely, that’s a big mistake that will cost you in the long run.

Lastly, see if your friends or someone close to you will throw a benefit in your honor. When it comes to trying to survive her, I’m not embarrassed to accept money anymore and you shouldn’t be either. Let them help, and trust me, if you call enough people asking to help someone battling cancer, odds are you will get most of it, if not all of the cost to throw the benefit in the first place covered. Then you can choose how to get some extras like tshirts, wrist bands, raffle prizes, sometimes you will have to invest a little but it will work out because who doesn’t want to help a cancer patient who’s struggling?

Anyway, those are my tips. I’m no financial wiz by any means obviously but you never know what might help.

I’d just add if your insurance company rejects a claim, enlist your doctors to fight for you; they will have more of an arsenal of convincing arguments related to your medical condition, and they know how the game is played. Nothing had been rejected for my husband, and then he got into a study so expenses are covered. But a medical expense was rejected for me, and someone from my doctor’s office called the insurance company several times and had the doctor write a letter to finally get it approved.

Good luck to you!

Beth