Can the hospital bill me from 2005?

We recieved a hospital bill from 2005 this week. It is the first time we have gotten this bill, and, for those of you who havent noticed, it is 2008! Is there a statute of limitations on this extortion? How can we deal with it?
Additional Details
The hospital claims that they had send the bill to our insurance provider in 2005 and that they had paid. They also claim that they sent it to us, but that it came back as an invalid address. They further claim that they sent it to our insurace AGAIN in 2008 and that they paid AGAIN! Fishy? I think so!

The real zinger is that the bill should have went to medicaid who would have paid in full, due to the exent of the genetic defects suffered by the patient (my brother) The hospital never sent it to medicaid and medicaid will not accept bills more than a year old, so we cant get it paid now! I swear this is not a joke.

We don't want to screw the hospital when we owe them money, but theres got to be limits on this stuff?!

I'm a biller for a large practice, and the short answer is yes and no.

Okay, if the hospital did not submit the charges to Medicaid in time, they CAN NOT bill you after the fact. That is called balance billing, and it is illegal. The hospital knows the claim will be denied for timely filing, so they are billing you directly instead. Speak to a supervisor in the billing department to straighten this out.

The second part is, if they have submitted some claims to medicaid, and there is a balance after medicaid paid their share, it is owed to them by you. We do have things that surface after a year or two in my office, and we have every right to bill the patient for services rendered.

Good Luck!

Jenn is exactly right and most of the other answerers are wrong. I used to work for a small, rural hospital who had a very high staff turnover rate, therefore, never really had anybody in the billing office that knew what they were doing! Each insurance has a time limit that they can be billed for services rendered. As you said, Medicaid is 1 year, some insurances it is 6 months. And in all honesty, if a hospital cannot bill for services in 1 year from the date of service, well, then they shouldn't get paid!

If our hospital billed after the time limit, the insurance is not required to pay. So then should you be responsible for it? Heck no! You (or your brother in this case) had insurance and it is in no way your fault that the hospital could not bill the insurance in one year. You have done nothing wrong.

But as in your case, the hospital I used to work for would then bill the patient for the full amount of the bill after the insurance wouldn't pay. They are not supposed to do this obviously but since they screwed up and didn't do the proper billing to get paid, they will try to get the money anyway they can. And many people don't know any better and pay the full bill which is total b.s. because they were insured! Ultimately, though, the patient does not have to pay (if they know their insurance was not billed in a timely matter) and the hospital legally has to write it off.

Now that is not saying you (or your brother) don't owe anything. Usually with medicaid there is some kind of a co-pay, although it is usually very small and in his case it could be free. And to answer your question about statute of limitations, no there isn't any. For instance, if that hospital did bill medicaid and they paid all of it but $100 back in 2005 and the hospital never sent you a bill, sorry, yes, you still owe the $100 even if its 3 years later.

But most importantly, you need to go down to the hospital billing office and speak with someone in billing about your brother's bill. You ask if the story sounds fishy? It sounds unbelievable to me! It's hard to get an insurance company to pay once, you will never get them to pay for the same bill twice! And then if they admit to you that his insurance paid for the bill twice, then why in the heck are they trying to get you guys to pay for the same bill a third time! I can pretty much guarantee you medicaid didn't pay for anything that was billed to them 3 years late, ESPECIALLY if they already paid for it once. You also need to contact medicaid to see what, if anything, they paid. Because unfortunately, like the hospital I used to work for, some will do anything to get paid, even if its at the very least unethical and illegal/fraud at the very worst. So you need to contact his insurance, see if they were ever billed and if and what they paid on the bill, then you need to go to the hospital in person and get an itemized bill of what they are charging him for. Again, you will definately not be responsible for the entire bill due to the hospital's own untimely billing. You may however still owe co-pays or co-insurance no matter how long its been. Hope this didn't thoroughly confuse you, I just get really fired up when they do this to people, because most people don't know any better and go into debt paying a bill that they never had to pay in the first place. Good luck to you.

The statute varies, but 7 years is the usual time. If you received the service, you authorized the service to be performed and you owe the bill. It doesn't matter whether or not you received the bill. The hospital is only obligated to send them-they are not obligated to find out if you received them.

While it's too late for the insurance to make any corrections on the payment if they erred, you should confirm that the hospital has received the payment, made the correct adjustments and you are being billed for the correct amount.

Contact the hospital and see what arrangements can be made. If you need financial assistance, ask for it. See if they will negotiate a lesser rate if you can send in full payment.It may be too late, but those are your options.

Edit:If you can prove that your brother was eligible for medicaid at the time, the hospital may write off the amount due to their error.

You have really got to call your insurance carrier to see what they have paid and when. I highly doubt that the insurance would pay twice on the same service-especially with a date of service 3 years ago!

So let me get this straight, your insurance company paid twice? Very odd. Can't you call that insurance company?

http://www.legaltarget.com/statue_of_limitations.htm

This web address is a place where you can ask legal questions.

This happened to me about 6 months ago. We had been receiving calls who wouldn't leave a message or tell my son who it was. I answered the phone and found out it was the hospital billing department call about a bill for a mammogram that I had 3 years ago. I keep a pretty good paper trail of all bills that I pay so I looked it up and found that I had paid it and even told her what check number it was and had a copy of the check. I told her how angry I was that they were calling so long afterward and that I bet a lot of people don't keep good records and would pay it again. Having worked in accounting for a long time, I asked her if they had hired an auditing firm that had them making collection calls for stuff they picked out was overdue. She answered, "I can't comment on that." So that's probably your answer as well.

Go to your hospital to the billing area and talk to one of their workers. Honestly, they can. A lot of times their billing gets so backlogged with insurance companies and the like. It may be a problem, or that may be your bill. If it's your bill, if you talk to them nicely they will typically help you set up a payment plan so you don't have to pay the whole thing all at once.

No there is no SOL on medical expenses. I wish. Don't feel bad, I received a bill from about 7 years ago. Apparently my health insurance never paid a portion of the bill and for some reason, if they did bill me, I never responded, though I don't ever recall getting a bill. Go figure. At any rate, what can also happen is that the hospital, will hire a collection agency or even sell their outstanding accounts receivables to a collection agency and that agency will contact the people who owe the debt. So take a look at where the bill is coming from and that can tell you something. If not the hospital accounting department may have just cleaned house and recognized some outstanding unpaid balances. It's tough times my friend and everybody is trying to get paid. It's just tough being on the giving end.

Thanks for reminding me. I have a couple of hospital bills I need to pay myself. Don't want them going into collections. You may want to call and set up some sort of payment plan as they can report the debt against your credit. You may also be able to negotiate the balance due if you agree to pay it in 1 lump sum, since it's such an old bill, they may be willing to compromise.

Good Luck~ ~J~

If it is your bill, pay it. If you don't think it is your bill, question it. Hospitals are notorious for having bad billing systems and they do make mistakes. If it might be yours, ask them for an itemized bill, including all charges and any payments your insurance might have made. Go over it with a fine tooth comb.

As for a statute of limitations, it varies with each state and depends on a number of factors. Check out the link attached for more info.

http://www.fair-debt-collection.com/statue-limitations-explained.html

we don't get hospital bills in canada

You bet they can bill you! Especially if the insurance just processed the claim.

if you medically insured than the paying liability goes to insurance company

You still have to pay it. The only thing you can fight, is if you haven't received any bill till now, and they added alot of late fees.

There's no statute of limitations, for you getting billed for services rendered.

heck yes they can.
you deal w/it by
paying it...its the
only way buddy!

its a medical bill...as long as you are bein billed for some service that actually occured, and it hasnt been paid for or covered by insurance, you have to pay it..hospital bills never go away

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