Huge Hospital Bill/ No Insurance

[sachinkumaravolu]

HI Narendra,

I just came to US with my wife .myself on H1 and my wife on H4. We had not taken any insurance while travelling because my Employer was applying for a Medical Insurance after our arrival to US.

After a week of our arrival, my wife got some medical complication and had to be admitted on emergency to hospital and underwent a surgery for appendicitis.

My employer says that our expenses at hospital will not be covered under insurance since insurance period starts only from first week of next month and that any group insurance starts only the begining of month after arrival and not immediately upon arrival

One of our relatives mentioned that hospital bill might come to $30K. I am not sure how i can repay this amount since i have just come to US and started working hardly 3 weeks back.

Since it was an emergency, the Hospital took only our address and her Visa status. They did not ask for my SSN also.

Please provide me ur suggestion ASAP. How can we reduce the bill. Is there any loopholes for this period of wait for Health Insurance.

Regards
Sachin

[insubuy]

If the insurance through your employer was not effective at the time of when you availed the services, they will not pay for it. There is no way around it.

You will have to work out with the hospital how you would like to pay for it. They may be able to give you some discount or reduce the bill, but it is all up to them.