Medical Debt Collectors

TipsyTaylor

Morning everyone, 
I am not sure if this is the appropriate category for me to post in but was hoping for some advice on a debt collector situation we have recently found ourselves in. 
My wife underwent a procedure at a private hospital recently which was covered through our health insurance. She was put under general anaesthetic and, between waking up after the surgery and leaving the hospital, she was given some pain relief and a replacement bandage to take home with her. As far as she is concerned (she was still groggy and not with it) there was no mention of charges and, having had several operations myself where pain relief and replacement bandages have been issued without charge, we did not expect to receive a bill this time either.
Several weeks later, we received a 'final request for payment' email from the hospital (previous emails had been caught in my wife's spam folder). My wife queried this and said that she had not asked for, or even used, the painkillers provided and, now that she was aware there was a £50 charge for them, she would happily return them to the hospital unused. 
The hospital responded saying that they could not accept a return and apologised that the charge was not made clear when the prescription was handed out. 
We then took that as the matter being closed. 
A few weeks further down the line, my wife received a text message and email from a debt collection agency with an increase to the amount due (up to £85.88) and the threat of a court summons. 
I have now complained to the hospital and told them that we would not be dealing with a debt collection agency. I have also queried why they are even chasing payment when there was no mention of a cost for the pain relief when it was issued. They have agreed to speak with the debtor collectors and freeze the account but will not cancel the debt altogether until they have had their own internal investigation. I am now trying to work out where we stand legally in terms of the debt and whether this would affect our credit rating. 
Can the hospital legally chase a £50 charge for something if cost implications were not made clear at the time (At best, the cost was mentioned to my wife as she was waking up from the general anaesthetic. At worst, it was not mentioned at all and my wife is adamant that nothing was signed)? 
Can we write to the debt collector and tell them that we are not prepared to open dialogue with them on this?
How likely is a £50 medical debt going all the way to court, rather than the best collector simply writing this off? 
Any advice anyone can offer would be greatly appreciated. 
Thanks,
Liam

Flugelhorn

probably find in the small print that prescriptions for take home medication are not covered by the insurance company 

TipsyTaylor

Hello Flugelhorn, 
I expect there would be something in our contract, but our argument is not with the insurer. As far as I am concerned, the hospital gave my wife some pain relief and a bandage without telling her they would seek payment weeks/months down the line otherwise she would have refused this.
I also don't think they have acted fairly by passing this onto a debt collection agency when, in the last/only conversation we had with them (in writing), they apologised for not making this clear to us.
Liam 

beckstar1975

When I have had my private operations I've had to provide my insurance details and then sign beforehand to say I will pay anything that's out of coverage. Did she check what she was signing when she was admitted? I really would be very surprised if the hospital had not done this.

I think you so have to pay, and tbf £50 is very little compared with the overall cost

Brie

I agree that their communications were less than acceptable.  And I would continue to take that line with them.  On that basis I would wait till they have concluded their investigation and see what the outcome is. 

As you state the first problem is that no one at the hospital made it clear to you that there would be a charge or if they did it might have been when your wife was groggy.  Second is not advising you that non payment might lead to a collection agency being involved.  I would have thought for the sake of £50 they would wave that as it will be taking more time and money for them to discuss this.

As for the collection agency - don't engage with them.  Don't ring, text or email.  If ultimately you do communicate with them do so by snail mail as you don't want to give them any easy way to harass you.  Should this linger I highly doubt it would ever get any further than a few threatening letters.  They won't go to court for such a small sum nor send out the bully boys.  

I do agree that private prescriptions aren't covered by the NHS but I'm surprised they weren't by the insurance.

Whatever else is going on I hope your wife is feeling better after the op.

DullGreyGuy

Brie said:

I do agree that private prescriptions aren't covered by the NHS but I'm surprised they weren't by the insurance.

There are many different grades of PMI out there, the majority dont cover outpatient medications but even that can vary. As another poster has already said, when checking in the OP will have been required to sign paperwork for the hospital which states that anything the insurer doesn't cover the OP will be liable for and about debt collection etc. 

There is a lot of complexity because the medical staff in the hospital won't know what level of cover the patient has etc, even the billing team won't be fully knowledgeable of every policy sold by every insurer. When we made our one substantial claim I thought I had to call the insurers to say the Dr wanted my wife to stay in longer and the claims guys there corrected me saying that the Dr will be but that she'd already stayed in for as long as they normally allow for (but not a hard policy limit) but even they were wrong as it was extended twice more. 

sourcrates

Debt collector works on behalf of the Hospital, they have no power to do anything.

Very unlikely a Hospital will start a claim for £50 quid, but if they do, defend the claim on the basis of what you have told us, no mention of payment was made to you, this is your defence:

"The hospital responded saying that they could not accept a return and apologised that the charge was not made clear when the prescription was handed out". 

They are admitting they are at fault here, no case to answer, ignore them unless the above happens.

Consider use of the NHS next time, this would not have happened.