My dad has cute anemia/He passed away

[redhen]

Oh Moochie..I'm so very sorry.

 

[sumi]

I'm so sorry

 

[Moochie]

Thanks chicken folk, but we've come across another problem - $3,398 emergency bill!?!?!?!?!!?

We can not afford that! Shouldn't our insurance be handling that?? We just scraped up all we could to pay some other bills (credit, trash, keeping our P.O. box), including what I had saved in my hello kitty money bank, and we get this? My mom is almost at tears and I'm really mad! Gosh, if I would have known the emergency people charges you we would have just taken daddy ourselves!!!

Today we visited our dad's body before he gets cremated and we come home to this... We need to contact the friend helping us through all of this about this bill. I really think that the medicare or w/e insurance we have should be taking care of this.

 

[dainerra]

did your father have insurance? It's common for any emergency services to be billed separately. They may or may not have access to the billing information that your mother supplied to the hospital (depends on if they are a separate company or work for the hospital itself among other things). Send a copy of the bill on to the insurance provider.

If they DON'T pay (or don't pay the full amount) it is perfectly acceptable to make payments. In most states as long as you are making a good faith attempt to pay them, they will leave you alone. I know people who have paid as little as $10 a month. Deep breaths and take time to sort things out.

 

[justbugged]

I am so sorry for the loss of your father.

As for the bill, it's possible that the hospital has billed your dad's insurance. In the mean time you will get a bill, until the insurance has paid. So read the bill carefully, and look for words that suggest that this is a bill pending insurance payment. If you can't find the information on the bill, call the hospital's billing department. The phone should be on the bill. Ask them if insurance as been billed yet. They may ask for insurance information. So have that ready if you can.

I know all of this is hard, but it just takes time to learn how to handle this new information. Think of it as a crash course in real life. As a high school senior you would have needed to learn how to do most of this kind of money management for yourself sooner or later. This is simply sooner.

 

[Carols Clucks]

I would assume your dad was covered under medicare, give it a few weeks and see if the bill is paid.

They charged $1600 to take my dad a few blocks to the hospital here, but it was paid for later.

Take all those bills, put them in an envelope and wait a month and then check and see if they are paid. Until then, don't worry.

 

[Moochie]

The ambulance bill does have some fill out stuff for insurance but on the other side it wants us to put our credit information. Should we email a copy to medicare just in case?

 

[CityGirlintheCountry]

I'm so sorry, Moochie.

You might check to see if there are grief counseling services near you. My mom worked as a grief counselor for Alive Hospice for years. They had a program geared for teens that might be helpful. It's a lot for a kid to carry.

 

[Gargoyle]

so sorry to hear this. I was only a couple years older than you when I suddenly lost my father.

as to the hospital and emergency bills, generally if you call them and explain the situation they will be helpful, either allow time to look into insurance, or reduce the bill, or offer a payment plan. That way you don't have to deal with it right away.

Hang in there, and when it gets tough give your chickens a hug. Then when they make you feel a little better give your mom a hug.

 

[EweSheep]

You mentioned Medicare, let Medicare handle the bills first before you take on the payments on the remaining amount. It should show "Billed to Medicare" or pending information from Medicare. That would be covered under the Part A, for the emergency ER care.

I agree with one said above, put them all in an envelope and let the family friend or financial advisor look over it and they can tell you what you need to do. Is your mother letting you take care of the family finances? If so, that is a lot to put on a young girl like you to manage family finances in order upon one's death. Be sure to have someone who experience this "mess" give you a guide in what to do and so forth.

Funeral expenses are not cheap. Hope your father has prepaid his funeral expenses or life insurance policy or savings saved up for that purpose. I think SS will only pay 100 dollars toward the funeral expenses. And the living will......I can not say this enough about this, it would make a heck of a difference.

I've been hearing cremation is the cheaper route to go rather than body viewing, casket, funeral and burial services, etc.