[jtassar93]

All my past inpatients I just get a bill every month and it takes over a year to pay off each one.

I just got Medicare but it doesn’t go into effect until October.

My question is- if I go inpatient before October and start payments, will it change in October? Will anything be covered? Or do I have to pay that one off

I really didn’t want to go before October but I don’t think I can make it that long

[BeyondtheRainbow]

Unfortunately nothing will be covered until the admission occurs when you are covered, so an admission before October will have to be paid by you. Once you are on Medicare an admission will have a co-pay that I think is around $1200 (not positive about that). I used to be able to get Medicaid to cover part of that but the law changed and it is all mine now.

Have you talked to the hospital billing about financial assistance? sometimes you can get the hospital to cover some or all of your care through programs they run. I did that a lot before I had Medicare.

[jtassar93]

Originally Posted by BeyondtheRainbow

Unfortunately nothing will be covered until the admission occurs when you are covered, so an admission before October will have to be paid by you. Once you are on Medicare an admission will have a co-pay that I think is around $1200 (not positive about that). I used to be able to get Medicaid to cover part of that but the law changed and it is all mine now.

Have you talked to the hospital billing about financial assistance? sometimes you can get the hospital to cover some or all of your care through programs they run. I did that a lot before I had Medicare.

Thanks. That sucks for me. I guess I’ll have to wait. I tried doing something like that and the best I could get were monthly payments. It just takes forever

[BeyondtheRainbow]

Originally Posted by jtassar93

Thanks. That sucks for me. I guess I’ll have to wait. I tried doing something like that and the best I could get were monthly payments. It just takes forever

I know. It does suck. I had paid everything off and then had to have my gallbladder removed in February so I'm right back to monthly payments for another year or two. I hate it. I was so fortunate to have 100% charity care when I was waiting for Medicare but that's more rare now than it used to be.