Expert: Ray A Miller - 1/14/2011

Question
Hello,
I am a foreign student living in Virginia. I had an operation in a state hospital in January, 2010. My bill was around to $17,000. I was under university's recommended insurance plan at that time. To process the insurance claim, I completed pre-existing condition survey required by the insurance company and sent it three times to the insurance company since it claimed that it did not receive my previous two mails. My final mail was around April 2010. After this, insurance company did not process the claim either by saying that they requested some additional documents from the hospital to decide whether this was a pre-existing condition or not. In March 2010, I requested financial assistance from the hospital, and I was given 100% assistance. That meant I would not pay anything. However, later on hospital sent me a warrant in debt and took my case to the court. Hospital representative told me that since insurance was involved in this claim, I was unable to benefit from financial assistance. I disputed the debt in the court, and the case was postponed to March 2011. Now, my question is that "can hospital still hold me legally accountable for the amount that it gave me financial assistance and the reason the insurance company is not processing the claim is that it did not get the documents from the hospital, a process that i am completely out of?" Also can I file a suit against the insurance company based on excess time and procedure it takes to process my claim and my resulting emotional distress due to distraction from my lessons.

Thank you very much for your time you spend reading my question

Answer
You may need the advice of an attorney on this one.  What I would do is call the Insurance Commissioner and report the insurance company.  I would also get your advisor from school to try to help out. I would then call the Director of the Business office at the hospital and get him/her involved. I hope you find this helpful.