Won the health insurance lottery….I think..USA

Okayyyy so my health insurance is a bronze PPO basically one of the better but also worse plans you can get because deductible is high ($6300) as well as OOP max ($9500). Plus it costs me $682 a month for my premium but I bit the bullet because I want to give birth at a specific hospital in my area and it’s one of the cheapest plans for insurance that the hospital takes.

I ended up going to the ER for severe constipation semi-late in my first trimester. They did an ultrasound, bloodwork, gave me some stronger laxatives and fluids and sent me on my way. I was there for 3.75hrs….Total bill was $26,766.00 🤯 My insurance covers 60% but it hit my deductible so they covered major portion of the bill and I owed $7472.00.

I was partially shocked by this and partially relieved that I hit my deductible early on and since baby is due this year I shouldn’t have to pay too much more. I called the hospital today because I hadn’t yet received my bill and I wanted to start making some payments towards it…. The account representative said “you don’t owe anything because we wrote the balance off as a charitable donation”. I didn’t apply for financial assistance and I have no idea why or how my bill got selected. But as a first time mom with tons to stress about I have to say I’m so freaking relieved however now I have questions….

Anyone know why hospitals do this? And will they report the write off to my insurance? Like does this still count towards my deductible because my portion of the bill was paid even though not by me? And lastly will it still count towards my out of pocket max even though it didn’t technically come out of my pocket?

Edit: 31F in California with a 100k gross

submitted by /u/Flowergirl22224
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