hospital debt

[themathlady]

Yesterday I received a letter from City National Bank in San Diego stating they had "purchased" my hospital debt and has opened a revolving loan to cover the debt. Along with the letter was my first bill of $20. I have a brain tumor and I have had many medical expenses. I had a MRI at the hospital and my insurance paid all but $650 dollars. I have been sending the hospital a minimum of $50 the last four months and the debt balance is now $425. Today I received a letter from the hospital's parent company stating they had "retained the servicesof City National Bank to provide patient financing arrangements." I know the debt is not great but as an educator who is now on disability and not receiving a monthly income $50 a month is all I can pay at the time. What concerns me is that no notice was provided to me before this letter. Also as someone who has her identiy stolen, costing me $4,000 to settle the case and delaying the purchase of my home by 5 months, it is alarming that a "revolving loan" was applied for and opened in my name without my permission. I would prefer to continue paying the hospital directly. Is this legal? Can the hospital apply for a loan in my behalf?

 

[dee_dub]

It sounds like the hospital didn't apply for a loan on your behalf, they simply sold your debt to City National. City National is purporting to treat your debt as a revolving credit facility. (I find this difficult to believe - theoretically, it could mean you could borrow from City National against your revolving credit there, which strikes me as unlikely.) But in any event, I don't think anyone has applied for anything in your name. I would suggest you contact City National to ascertain the exact nature of your obligation to them at this point.

It sounds like you were formerly being required to pay $50/month, and you are now being required to pay $20/month. If you don't mind taking longer to pay down the debt, it doesn't sound like a bad deal to me. You are probably also free to continue to pay it down at same rate as before.

 

[MISTIBLUE]

There are programs at the hospital that you can apply to where it pays all or sometimes half of all the bills. Call them and ask them about it.

As for hospital bills, you can agree to pay only what you can afford every month.

As for the loan they opened and you did not agree to is ILLEGAL.
I would contact a lawyer asap about this. Some don't even charge if you don't win.

God be with you and I hope eveything turns out great for you.

 

[themathlady]

thank you

To both who replied thanks. I did contact a lawyer here in Fort Worth, TX and he is looking into the manner for me.