Disappointing

By phoebe marie -
Yesterday, I called up the Cleveland Clinic's billing department to see about setting up an affordable payment plan for the remaining $6900 I owe of the $12,500 I had to pay out of pocket for my cancer treatment.  And I hung up BEYOND frustrated with the smug girl on the other end of the line who told me that a three month plan was the best they could do.  Seriously?  I don't have $2300 any more than I have $6900.  It may as well be the full $210,000 if I have to pay it off in three months!!!  She said that I COULD send what I can each month, but that it will likely, then, be sent to collections.

My initial reaction was to be pisssssssed.  But after cooling off for a few, i realized I am just frustrated.  I mean... it sucks!  I WANT to pay this bill.  I genuinely WANT to give my hard earned dollars to the good people at the Cleveland Clinic who helped me through my treatments and cured me of cancer!!!  That is a bill ENTIRELY worth paying.  And they are basically telling me that if I TRY to pay what I am capable of paying per month, it will be sent to a collection agency.  Meaning that ultimately, the money I DO send in will not all go to the Clinic.  I hate this...

I also hate that, should that happen, this could further fuck up my credit rating.  A credit rating I just spent EIGHT YEARS trying to fix after the financial nightmare I ended up in after my previous marriages and the poor monetary decisions that occurred during them.  A credit rating that Ryan and I desperately NEED to be decent if we are going to get out of this damned house and into one that is not, for me, full of "cancer memories" and for him is not in Cleveland proper and does not have a "Garaj-Mahal."  It just sucks.

I have a few people who have offered to give me numbers of people to talk to who might be more helpful, and I am going to work on that.  I don't want this to end up a negative thing.  I want to sort it out and for the money I have to go to the place that helped me.  

Hopefully something will come of these suggestions.  Fingers crossed...

Oh.  And one more thing... THANK YOU.  At least half of the bills that I HAVE paid off, I was able to pay off because of the donations I received here on my blog from all of you!  Seriously!  There are no words to express what that means to me.  You all helped make this happen, and I cannot thank you enough...

Love love love, Phoebe

Comments

Anonymous said…
Phoebe, between Donald and me, we have owed CCF hundreds of thousands of $$$ oveer the past 27 yrs (2 organ transplants with follow-up care, 2 cancer treatments, ortho surgeries _ we've hit every dept. except OB, I think!) Carefully check your bills for errors, as billing can be totally screwed up. Ask for itemized accounts. Then go right to the head of dept to set up payment plan. The whole things suck big time, and adds to stress. And some still go to collections, although our credit score hasn't been affected. We pay what we can... Salli
May 17, 2012 at 7:40 AM
Michelle Auer said…
I had a dental bill once that was too insane to pay upfront and got met with something similar. I called one of those non-profit consumer credit counseling places, and for free they called the clinic and set up a $50 a month plan. For whatever reason they were unwilling to work with me, but the CCC had zero trouble coming up with a plan.
May 17, 2012 at 2:04 PM
Anouschka said…
Yes, do get an itemized bill and check it. I was charged $8000 worth of labor care by Miami Valley Hospital, even though I was never in labor before my c-section... I never paid my share of the $8000 and they refused to take it off the bill. So it was eventually sent to collection. It did take them over two years to do that though.
May 19, 2012 at 3:12 PM
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