Hospital did not disclose to me that I was uninsured (please help)
I don’t know if this is where I should post this but I figured it would be a good place to start as I desperately need help, and I’m going to try to simplify this story as much as I can. Essentially, my (21F) parents have been divorced since I was 17. Per their divorce agreement, my father (who I have no contact with) is required to pay my medical bills/provide insurance coverage for me until I’m 26. However, as he’s a shit person, he has not done so fully.
I suffer from a number of different mental health conditions and was hospitalized in November of 2022 for an attempt on my life. I started at one hospital in the ER and then was moved to another for inpatient treatment. At the time I was covered (supposedly) under my father’s insurance, which was a crappy short term one as he had been recently fired from his job that summer. This card was scanned MULTIPLE times at BOTH hospitals. I was never alerted to any issue whatsoever.
About a month (I’m guessing) after my hospitalization I began receiving emails from the hospital I was hospitalized at saying I had a balance due. I responded, saying that per my parents’ divorce agreement all billing should go to my father and that I could sign whatever forms they needed me to to contact him. They said that they did not have insurance on file for me and that regardless of the legal agreement, I had to pay the bill as I was over 18. I figured eventually it would work itself out as they had scanned my insurance card multiple times. One time in particular – as I wasn’t allowed to have access to my stuff – one of the social workers took my card out of my wallet and physically showed it to me to make sure it was right (it was) and then took it to go scan it and check it. I knew my mother had also relayed the message multiple times to my father to look into it, which he said he would. There was absolutely no reason why they should’ve not had that information.
Fast forward to about a month ago. I’m still getting calls from debt collectors, and since I don’t have contact with my father I don’t think there’s anything I can really do on my end. One day, I’m at therapy and was told that I had a $3000 unpaid balance on my account (which I had signed releases for my father to take care of), and that if I don’t do anything about it I can have two pro bono sessions before they have to cancel my upcoming appointments. Since I have such severe mental health problems (see above) I rely on psychiatry, medication and therapy to keep me going, and it would quite literally be detrimental to my health if I didn’t have those services. My therapist is incredible and helped me to sign up for medical assistance (I live in Minnesota) but I have no idea how the whole system works for that, nor how I can contact them. I have a few special circumstances given the legal thing, the fact that I’m a college student living away from home and because of a few things with taxes, and I’m not sure how to contact the program to discuss this with them; I’ve found a million different webpages but I’m not sure which one I’m supposed to call.
To add insult to injury, today I found out that I’ve actually been uninsured since SEPTEMBER of 2022. None of the providers at EITHER hospital told me about this, even after checking my insurance multiple times. There was no mention of medical assistance either or literally anything that could’ve helped me to know/do something about this. I’m now being harassed by debt collectors to pay as well when it wasn’t even my bill to pay in the first place. I feel completely let down and betrayed by a place I went to get help, which has now left me feeling 10x worse than before. I feel like I was completely taken advantage of when I was in a rough place. I may not be able to receive the services I need soon which would quite literally ruin me. I cannot afford to pay these bills as a college student and I’m terrified about what this will do to my credit score. My mother is contacting her attorney about this – for both the hospital bills and for the legal issues with my father – but in the meantime I’m trying to see if anyone knows anything I can do. It’s very possible I was a dumbass about all of this since I’m young and know very little about insurance, but this just feels wrong to me.
