How to Get Help with Unpaid Emergency Room Bills

For some uninsured individuals the only way to get medical assistance is by going to a hospital's emergency room. These visits may result in large hospital bills. If you have unpaid emergency room bills that keep on coming to your mailbox, don't ignore them. Delinquent hospital bills can destroy your credit report. Use these steps to help you get assistance with unpaid emergency room bills.

Instructions

• 1

  Review the emergency room bills. These bills may be full of codes that are not understandable; call the hospital's financial office and ask for code explanations if you need them. Make sure that all the expense items on the bill were actually incurred by you. Let the hospital's financial office know that you received the bills and that you are working towards getting them paid.

• 2

  Determine if you have any money left in your budget to start paying the emergency room bills. List your household expenses and income and find out how much you can count on every month to pay these bills.

  Negotiate a payment plan with the hospital. Since these are unpaid emergency room bills, the doctors may not have much power in reducing administrative fees and other hospital costs, but the hospital staff can.

• 3

  Talk to the financial service office and let them know that you are having financial hardships and need a modification of the bills. For the negotiation process, you'll need to let the hospital know how much income you have left every month to pay towards the bills.

• 4

  Find out about the hospital's Charity Financial Aid procedures. Some hospitals, especially larger ones work with patients that are having financial hardships to find them charity assistance to pay for bills. These bills include emergency bills, doctor's bills and medical procedures bills. This assistance is based on needs; therefore you'll need to show how much you have left of your income to pay part of the hospital bills.

• 5

  Talk to the hospital's social workers office. This office may help you find and qualify for other not for profit financial assistance programs. There are other programs that are based on qualifications such as being a senior citizen, a minor child or pregnant woman with maternity emergency room bills. Also, discuss your qualifications for state programs like Medicaid.

• 6

  Contact individual charity organizations directly to get help with unpaid emergency room bills. If you have a long term condition, such as heart disease, cancer or diabetes for examples; there are specific associations that may help you. Get in contact with the American Heart Association, American Cancer Society and American Diabetes associations to request help.