Rutland columnist Allan Grey shares story of demand for $77,000 after US hospital stay
Just when you thought it was safe to go out again, just when you thought stuff had been sorted, just when you thought you’d put it all behind you, then completely out of left field, along comes a little bombshell, writes Rutland columnist Allan Grey.
You may remember I wrote about living under a dark cloud between October 2023 and April 2024, worrying that we may have to pay for the Lovely Lady’s one week stay in a US hospital and her repatriation from the US. This was following her accident whilst she and her friend were volunteering out in Florida and if the travel insurance underwriters didn’t accept the claim.
I wrote about the relief we both felt when we received that incredible email from the claims company in Canada at the beginning of April last year, confirming that the underwriters had accepted the claim in full, and had covered all the invoices received, although we never saw them and had no idea just how much had been charged or paid out. The Lovely Lady had been feeling very guilty for those six months, guilty that she had seemingly put us at such a financial risk, even believing it might put our house on the line; I’m just so pleased that she knew that would not happen before we lost her.
Fast forward to my return from Antarctica back in January, and I pick up the usual pile of post that had arrived whilst I was away. One envelope in particular, with a Swiss location on its franking, piqued my curiosity and so I opened it before all the other mostly junk mail. It was addressed to ‘The Administrators of Lovely Lady’s Estate’, and was from an international debt collector.
I read the letter several times, utterly bemused, wondering if this was a scam, but it was just too convincing in the detail it relayed, claiming payment for an unpaid one week stay in the Florida hospital. A mere $129,000, yes one hundred and twenty nine thousand dollars, and a few odd cents. The line underneath stated an ‘uninsured discount’ of $77,000 leaving a request for payment of $52,000.
I decided to do nothing, but obviously spoke to a number of people and in particular the Lovely Lady’s beautiful friend who managed all the many contacts with the travel insurance, the hospital and the Canadian claims company during that awful week before accompanying her back home to Oakham, her claim to fame being that she never once showed a credit card to anyone.
I also spoke to a good friend well acquainted with the debt collection industry. He explained how it works, commenting that the TV sensationalism of burly bailiffs banging on doors and aggressively repossessing the TV and the car was not representative. Debt collectors usually work for businesses that do not have effective accounts receivable departments, and make their money by contacting people who know they owe money and who generally pay up when contacted by a debt collector.
The next thing I know, my landline is ringing, and it’s the gentleman from Switzerland making contact. He’d obviously done his research and found my number and wanted to explain the situation, which he did very politely. I explained as far as I was concerned all bills had been paid and I had an email from the claims company confirming that. He intimated that these ‘confusions’ happen regularly, but if push comes to shove the hospital might be quite happy to negotiate the $52,000 down even further. How decent of them I thought, and we left it at that.
I decided to consult my solicitor, and their advice was it would be fine to copy the email confirming the underwriters had accepted the claim in full to the debt collector, letting him follow up with the claims company himself.
This I did, and more recently enlisted the help of an American friend, a lady who had worked in the US health system for more than 30 years. She very quickly made contact with the hospital and the claims company where I and the debt collector had failed, discovering the claims company had never received an invoice from the hospital. After telephone calls with the hospital, an invoice was eventually produced and sent to the claims company, the debt collector and copied to me. The invoice carefully itemised all the various aspects of Lovely Lady’s one week hospital stay, totalling the impressive $129,000.
It’s not until these situations occur that you get some idea of the complex of business organisations that surround insurance, and specifically health insurance in the US. Furthermore, I’ve learned that sitting between the health care providers and the insurance companies and underwriters are intermediary companies - we might call them loss adjusters - arbitrating until a sum acceptable to both parties is reached.
I am pleased to say that I never lost any sleep, but was only slightly comforted by a friend’s flippant comment that it would be unlikely that I’d be extradited. Well that was good to hear, although I thought I’d leave the US off any future travel plans until the claim was settled; you can just imagine arriving at immigration in Miami and being greeted by two large unsmiling gentlemen trying to repossess my Werther’s Originals.
And then a week ago another email from the debt collector, this time, at last informing me that the insurance company had paid the claim and the hospital were confirming that the debt was now cleared. I replied, asking the debt collector what the negotiated settlement to the hospital was; his one line reply…….$77,000. The upshot being I can now happily visit the US again, maybe!