International Medical Debt

LisaW20

LionessInWinter wrote: »

I would contact the hospital in the US directly to find out if they will accept reduced payments.

I'm in the US and someone I know had a relative visiting and she was in the hospital for 5 days and I think they tried to collect but the person wrote back explaining the situation and I believe it was written off. I dont think it was anywhere near your costs but it won't hurt to try.

We have tried. The hospital didn't respond to any of our emails, letters or phone calls and then the company in Switzerland got in touch.

Once the debt was reduced from $200k+ down to $70k, they offered a 12 month repayment plan at around $6k per month. Obviously, my parents don't have this money. We filled out expenditure forms and sent over a payment offer and they flat out refused it and told my father to go and get a loan secured on the house. He's 67. I can't see that happening. They more or less said they should sell their home to pay the bills. It hasn't gotten nasty yet but it's starting to.

PinkPoppies

I'm afraid I haven't any advice but just wanted to wish you the very best of luck getting it sorted out. Sounds like an utter nightmare, I really hope you can get some strong specialist legal advice and support.

LisaW20

sourcrates wrote: »

Hi,
What an awful situation for them to be in, it should serve as a salutary lesson to always read the small print on policies such as this.

With regard to the debt, I am unsure how enforceable this would be in the UK, it's a very gray area, I suggest you give National debt line a ring, as this is too specific a question for an Internet forum.

nationaldebtline

They can give you much more tailored advise on this.

They were very very helpful! Thanks so much for suggesting this.

They have said they won't have to sell their house and there is no way that the collection agency can enforce the sale! :T

LisaW20

PinkPoppies wrote: »

I'm afraid I haven't any advice but just wanted to wish you the very best of luck getting it sorted out. Sounds like an utter nightmare, I really hope you can get some strong specialist legal advice and support.

Thank you so much. Thanks to a couple of people here I did an online chat with National Debt Line and they were super helpful!

Thanks so much everyone.

sourcrates

LisaW20 wrote: »

They were very very helpful! Thanks so much for suggesting this.

They have said they won't have to sell their house and there is no way that the collection agency can enforce the sale! :T

There you go, they know there stuff at Debtline, I had an inkling they would not be able to enforce this in the UK, they will tell you anything to get you to pay, but in reality, there is very little they can do, I hope this eases the pressure on you and your family somewhat. !!!!!

fatbelly

I think Lisa is confirming what I said earlier - that they cannot force a sale of the house, in that an order for sale is unlikely to be granted by the English court system. That isn't necessarily the same as 'they can't enforce the debt'

The usual methods of enforcement are bailiffs, attachment to earnings, third party debt order, charging order. But they would need to have a court judgement that was recognised here, and that may prove difficult for them, but not impossible.

You may want to find a solicitor who specialises in debt collection and run this past them in case it is still worth taking some defensive action now. This may be outside the experience of the Age Concern solicitor. You can usually ask for an initial half hour free interview.

[Deleted User]

OP whilst i sympathise to some extent,they seemed able to arrange a holiday in the US but not able to understand travel insurance?
I suppose at the end of the day they could be forced to sell their house

LisaW20

woodbine wrote: »

OP whilst i sympathise to some extent,they seemed able to arrange a holiday in the US but not able to understand travel insurance?
I suppose at the end of the day they could be forced to sell their house

They took out travel insurance believing themselves to be covered for any new illness that might crop up whilst they were away. As far as they were concerned, they were offered additional cover for old ailments - my mother's breast cancer, her hip replacement - which were done and gone.

They didn't fully understand that a heart attack could be linked back to hypertension (even though this was not the sole cause) and that this was an uninsured pre-existing condition.

When they took the insurance out over the phone, it was sold by someone speaking poor English to my partially deaf father. After offering the additional insurance for pre-exisitng conditions, if Top Dog had said 'you do realise that by refusing the additional cover if one of you has say, a heart attack or stroke, you won't be covered', my father would have paid the £500 extra in a heartbeat (excuse the pun!).

They're not bumbling old idiots but when it comes to the grey area of insurance claim loopholes, they had minimal understanding.

LisaW20

sourcrates wrote: »

There you go, they know there stuff at Debtline, I had an inkling they would not be able to enforce this in the UK, they will tell you anything to get you to pay, but in reality, there is very little they can do, I hope this eases the pressure on you and your family somewhat. !!!!!

It really has! Debtline advised that we reiterate our first offer of payment instalments and begin making them whether it is accepted or not. The way it was explained to us, the Swiss company need to get a judgement in their country, then transfer it to the UK. They said that the court cannot enforce the sale of the house, so then the next step would be to work out what they can afford to pay and issue a judgement for that - which they will be doing anyway, which will make the company in Switzerland look stupid!

LisaW20

fatbelly wrote: »

I think Lisa is confirming what I said earlier - that they cannot force a sale of the house, in that an order for sale is unlikely to be granted by the English court system. That isn't necessarily the same as 'they can't enforce the debt'

The usual methods of enforcement are bailiffs, attachment to earnings, third party debt order, charging order. But they would need to have a court judgement that was recognised here, and that may prove difficult for them, but not impossible.

You may want to find a solicitor who specialises in debt collection and run this past them in case it is still worth taking some defensive action now. This may be outside the experience of the Age Concern solicitor. You can usually ask for an initial half hour free interview.

Thank you. They are seeing a solicitor outside of Age concern now, to discuss next steps if it goes to court here. In the meantime, we are doing as Debtline advises and re-iterating our offer and starting payments with immediate effect.

My father has also arranged an appointment at the bank just to get some advice from them if possible.