Will unpaid hospital bill appear on Credit Report

Ohoopee

I got very sick at the beginning of last month. My first time ever in my life since I was born that I was put in the hospital. I rang my GP first and he was too busy to see me...I described my symptoms and he told me to go to the hospital...he said he would send a referral so if they sent me a bill to ignore it and he would sort it out. Turns out, I had a ruptured peptic ulcer and had a severe bleed in my digestive track...I was severely anemic and dehydrated when I got to the emergency room. They had to give me two units of blood and I ended up staying in the hospital for a week. My GP never sent the referral and the hospital has sent me a bill which I ignored like my GP said...I trusted he would do what he said....but apparently, he hasn't. I got a letter yesterday, final notice, from the hospital, if I don't pay the bill, they are going to turn my case over to a collections agency. The thing is, I shouldn't have to pay. It was a doctors referral that sent me to the Emergency room...he was too busy to see me, but it is clear to me now that even if he had seen me, he would have still told me to go to the hospital...he is just being slow about providing the required documentation.

I am not too worried about the collection agency...but I am worried about all of this appearing on my otherwise flawless credit report. Will it?

Cushie Butterfield

No, it won’t appear on your credit report.

Contact your GP, get him to give you a backdated referral letter. Attach it to your bill/demand letter & send it to the accounts dept of hospital.

Edit: this would only cover you for the initial A&E visit, which would have been cancelled seeing as you were admitted, so you’ll still be liable for the daily public inpatient charge.

splinter65

If you were 5 nights in the hospital and you don’t have a medical card then referral or not the charge to you is €80 per night up to a maximum of 10 nights in any rolling year.
Ring the hospital and set up a payment plan.
Is the €100 A&E charge included in the breakdown ? It shouldn’t be if you were admitted.

Ohoopee

I was under the impression from talking to my GP that I wouldn't have to pay anything if he referred me...that is when he told me not to pay the bill if I got one...he said he would sort it out.

From looking at my bill, they are not charging me A&E fees. The only charges are "Statutory In-Patient Charge" Its 80 Euro and I have four of them so my total bill is 320 Euro. If I would have though I had to pay it, I would have made arrangements with them as soon as I got the first bill. I was just going off what my GP said...at least it won't appear on my credit report though.

Cushie Butterfield

Ohoopee wrote: »

I was under the impression from talking to my GP that I wouldn't have to pay anything if he referred me...that is when he told me not to pay the bill if I got one...he said he would sort it.

He didn’t realise that you’d need to be admitted, so was only talking about the A&E charge.

Ohoopee

Ok...I'll ring the hospital tomorrow so...I don't mind paying if I have too but didn't want to pay if I didn't have too...

splinter65

Ohoopee wrote: »

I was under the impression from talking to my GP that I wouldn't have to pay anything if he referred me...that is when he told me not to pay the bill if I got one...he said he would sort it out.

From looking at my bill, they are not charging me A&E fees. The only charges are "Statutory In-Patient Charge" Its 80 Euro and I have four of them so my total bill is 320 Euro. If I would have though I had to pay it, I would have made arrangements with them as soon as I got the first bill. I was just going off what my GP said...at least it won't appear on my credit report though.

GPs mean well, I find, but don’t really know the ins and outs of public services. Same with accountants and solicitors.
I can garuntee you that you owe €80 for each night you were an inpatient.

Geuze

A letter from a GP just avoids the AE fee of 100.

It does not affect the daily overnight fee.

Also note that you can get 20% tax relief on the 320, assuming you pay income tax.