How can you consolidate your unpaid medical bills?

Updated on March 15, 2019

Healthcare is considered to be one such budget that you can always predict. Emergency medical situations can arise at any time. According to the estimation, it has been found that the average US household generally spent around $4,612 on medical expenses. Even those who have insurance policies to cover up the medical expenses sink in huge medical debts as the insurance companies provide coverage up to a certain amount. 

The medical dept contributes to several bankruptcy filings in the US. Unpaid medical bills impact drastically on your credit line. If you have any unpaid medical bills, you should address them immediately so that it does not create a lasting impact on the financial aspect.

How can you deal with your unpaid medical bills?

Consolidate the medical bills

If you feel to lower your monthly payments even after applying for the medical, financial aid or negotiate with the original care provider or hospital, you will require exploring the other ways available to cover up the amount you owe. Medical debt consolidation is considered as a common option – there are several kinds of loans available which you can use to consolidate your medical bills, and each of them comes with a certain set of benefits.

Personal loan

You can take a personal loan to calculate your medical bills as well as high-interest credit card and make a single payment to the lender at a lower rate of interest. The personal loan can be used for any purpose and is provided in a specific amount with a set monthly payment for the loan life. The loan term will complete depending on the credit score you have.

0% APR credit card

One of the best ways to calculate medical debt is to transfer the outstanding balance is onto the 0% intro APR card. Promotional rates are offered by several credit card companies ranging from 0% to 3.99% for 6 months to 21 months. Once this period gets over or expires, the APR of the card may revert to the standard as well as a much higher interest rate.

Home equity loan

This kind of loan is usually secured by equity that you already have in your residence – almost equal to the differences between what you owe on your home mortgage and your property’s value. Just like the personal loans, you can get home equity loans in lump sum amounts at fixed interest rates. You can use this cash in hand to pay back the debt and then repay on monthly installments to the equity loan provider.

The only risk that you need to undertake in securing your loan with your residential property as the collateral is if you cannot pay back the loan amount, you will lose your property. There are fees attached to home equity loan – appraisal and application. And, the long life of your loan means you have to pay a significant amount of interest as well.

Fix the service of a professional credit counselor

A debt management tool is known for being one of the best options to pay down the debt which includes mortgage, credit card, and medical debt. Usually, debt management plans are provided by the nonprofit credit card selling companies that negotiate interest rates as well as deal with the creditors on your behalf for consolidating the monthly payments. This payment is distributed among the creditors whom you owe specific amounts.

To enter a debt management plan, you need to take the service of a professional credit counselor who can review your financial situation properly. This includes your assets, expenses, credit reports, and debts. After that, they will create proposals for your creditors, which will outline the payments monthly you will be making in exchange for waived off fees and lower rates.

Medical debt is slightly handled differently in debt management plans because usually, credit counseling companies don’t have relationships with all medical providers the way they usually have with the national lenders. At the same time, most of the medical bills are of zero interest already. A professional credit counselor will send a proposal outlining what you will be able to pay every month for the balance payment after consolidation, but in most of the cases, providers do not wish to make any concessions and some even do not prefer to respond.

Negotiate the medical bills

When you receive your medical bills together, it is important that you give you all the available documents carefully to ensure that you do not have to pay for something that you did not even receive or you have been incorrectly categorized. Mistakes in the bills are too common, and there are several cases already filed in the US circulating major errors in the medical bills. You can ask the provider for itemized billing so that it can help you to review every item individually.

It is very unfortunate that this kind of problem makes people get more harassed, especially when they already at their worst situations in life. In most of the cases, it so happens that people don’t have the required capability to deal with these medical bills. At times, people do not even open the medical bills to review them or even if they open the same; they do not prefer to raise the questions.

If you come across any unexpected errors in the bills, directly call the billing department of the service provider as well as the insurance company to make the charges removed or updated.

If you get shocked after receiving the bill and you have time for making the negotiation, it is recommended to go for financial aid through the provider; it becomes easy if a hospital is involved. In case of financial hardship, your provider will review your financial situation to determine if you are at all eligible for deduction in the bill – and they can waive off the amount to a certain extent. The best part is that even if you do not qualify, this process will delay the collection activities as well as extend that time for paying off of the debt value.

When you are planning to settle down with a debt consolidation company, it is important that you check out the debt settlement reviews. You have to understand their services properly before approaching. Reviews can help you to understand the positive aspects of their services. Shortlist some of the available options and get in touch with the providers personally before finally taking a decision.

+ posts

Throughout the year, our writers feature fresh, in-depth, and relevant information for our audience of 40,000+ healthcare leaders and professionals. As a healthcare business publication, we cover and cherish our relationship with the entire health care industry including administrators, nurses, physicians, physical therapists, pharmacists, and more. We cover a broad spectrum from hospitals to medical offices to outpatient services to eye surgery centers to university settings. We focus on rehabilitation, nursing homes, home care, hospice as well as men’s health, women’s heath, and pediatrics.