Basically-long story short. The woman doesn't have insurance, and I have crazy medical bills from staying in the hospital a week and getting surgery. I can get money from the state board for innocent victims of auto accidents but it only allows $15,000 max. with a chunk of that going to legal fees. So I was wondering 2 things:

A) Does anyone know a fund or non profit that donates money to injuried cyclists (PA and/or Philly)?

B)I'm looking for help organizing a benefit bike race through Philadelphia to help cover some of the out of pocket expenses (perscriptions, bills, rent etc) Since I had to leave my job due to the injury. ANy help would be great. I mostly need help setting a route, and promotion. I can get promotions and prizes etc.

get in touch:
timmyc123@gmail.com

Do you own a car or are you the resident relative (do you live with your parents, wife etc) of someone who does? If so, and they have uninsured motorist insurance, you may be able to make a claim. Worth a shot.

If you have car insurance with PIP coverage, you should be able to recover some of your costs.

PA is one of those wierd states with a Full Tort, Limited Tort option. Under either case, (assuming you are covered under someone's auto policy) you can be reimbursed for medical expenses. Coverage for pain and suffering and lost wages varies depending on the type of policy.

Anyway, step one is to determine if you are covered by an auto policy that has UM coverage & file a claim. Aside from that I'd say its up to your medical insurance and pocketbook to cover the bills.

A final note...If you can't pay, DON'T pay the medical bill with a credit card. Defaults on Medical accounts do not impact your credit history to the same extent as defaults on revolving accounts. If you have to stick it to someone, make sure they are coded as a medical account.

Bleed the woman dry? She has a car and probably some other assets even if she has no insurance unless she's destitute. This is why lawyers exist. Get a good one.
However, should that not work, talk to the hospital. Hospitals can be very helpful in getting those bills paid. Reductions in bill, interest free billing, good payment plans are all solutions they will work with you on. They just want their money, eventually. They're much more forgiving than any creditor that's not your mom.

Unfortunatly I have no medical insurance. I also don't own a car, nor am I on anyone elses auto insurance policy to claim underneath. Speaking with my lawyer, it seems the ordeal looks pretty grim. She has no car insurance to make a claim to, or any mentionable assests to push for. Even to sue for future monies or to garnish wages would probably cost me more than I would get in return.

I seem to have run out of finacial luck. I have started to get the first wave of medical bills in the mail and the numbers are staggering.

When you get all your expenses write the hospital a letter stating you are uninsured and will
pay off your bill at X dollars a month, after a few months they may write it off. This
is what my nephew did and the hospital wrote it off after two months. It's worth a try.

After you don't pay for many years, the hospital will probably be tickled pink to get half of whatever you owe. Any bill that you get will be at least twice what they would be happy to get from an ins. co. Definitely don't pay the whole thing.

As I am sure you are finding out, the lawyer won't sue on contingency unless he thinks there is enough to make him money also. Sad state of affairs, it is.

Just don't pay without telling them.
Without any response from you they will simply attack your credit and then any assets you may have.

Do you have many assets?

I have started to get the first wave of medical bills in the mail and the numbers are staggering.

You must also understand that the hospital and other medical provider bills are inflated. They do not expect to collect anywhere near the total billed.

I was in the hospital in January 2006 for 5 days and I received bills for the hospital stay, an emergency room physician, blood test, xrays and other tests, and 3 other doctors. The total of all the bills amounted to over $45,000. It was outrageous. They billed my insurance company this amount and between my coinsurance payement and my insurance company's payment the total paid was only about $4,500 or a tenth of the total billed. The balance of the bills was disallowed by then insurance company because of contractual agreements between the insurance company and the providers. The medical providers know this will happen but bill the higher amount anyway.

You certainly should not have to pay more than what the hospital would expect to receive from someone who has insurance. You first must negotiate to get the bills to be reduced to reasonable amounts. They should be reduced to an average of the what their contractual agreements with the insurance companies are. And then you should work out a payment plan. Do not work out a payment plan until you get the bills reduced. And I also agree with what someone else said: do not pay by credit card.

And ask for detailed bills. Don't settle for statements. I asked for detailed invoices because I wanted to see what the hospital was billing for. They bill me $10 each day for a box of tissues even though I never used more than one box the entire time. They billed me $18 for a hospital gown each day even though I never used their gown - I wore my own sweat pants. There were countless other items like that.

Our entire healthcare system is broken. Fight for a national healthcare plan.

. . .

And ask for detailed bills. Don't settle for statements. I asked for detailed invoices because I wanted to see what the hospital was billing for. They bill me $10 each day for a box of tissues even though I never used more than one box the entire time. They billed me $18 for a hospital gown each day even though I never used their gown - I wore my own sweat pants. There were countless other items like that.

. . .

Get a copy of your medical records and make sure the billed stuff is actually on your chart too. All this little stuff adds up. And don't let them tell you that they only send itemized bills to the insurer--that's BS because you are paying that insurer.

And if you ask for a copy of your records don't let them charge you outrageously for the copies!

Wishing you the best of luck with meeting the costs, and with your job. Sorry I can give you any useful advice, except move to Canada, where our high taxes address this sort of thing. What sort of work were you doing?

Lot of good advice in this post. I work in health insurance and what is stated above is true...hospitals inflate their charges enormously. There are a number of reasons they do this but basically it comes down to cost shifting and some other things that would take too long to explain. They will try to extract what they can from private pays (folks with no insurance) and insurance carriers they have no contract with. They will have more luck with the latter than the former because they know no individual will be able to raise that kind of money. Also, I have no idea about your state, but some others are coming up with fair pricing laws which mean that people without insurance shouldn't pay rates that are 10X or more higher than what they contract for with insurance companies.

Your first step should be to get an itemized bill. They have to provide this to you. Asking for your medical records is also a good idea. It will let them know that you mean business and you may have other folks looking into your case like an attorney or the state dept of insurance. Then try to negotiate a reasonable fee for your services. They have to do this more than you would think. Just stress the point that if they can work with you that they will have a good chance of collecting some money...if they play hardball, best case is that you tell them to pound sand and they will be lucky to see $100, worst case is that you write a letter to the dept of insurance in your state, you will be contacting the local news to describe your plight (getting hit by an indigent driver and then getting screwed for way too much money from a greedy hospital), and that should get their attention.

Assuming you can negotiate a reasonable fee for their services I think a benefit bike ride is a good idea. If I was local I would participate. Good luck to you.

I agree with above statements, hospitals charge ridiculous ammount. I remember I was charged $900 bucks for a couple mile tip in an ambulance. If I knew it, I would have told them to go to hell and walked to the hospital.

Unfortunatly I have no medical insurance. I also don't own a car, nor am I on anyone elses auto insurance policy to claim underneath. Speaking with my lawyer, it seems the ordeal looks pretty grim. She has no car insurance to make a claim to, or any mentionable assests to push for. Even to sue for future monies or to garnish wages would probably cost me more than I would get in return.

I seem to have run out of finacial luck. I have started to get the first wave of medical bills in the mail and the numbers are staggering.
Tim, if the hospital happens to be a Catholic or other church affiliated hospital, and you can show need, they will write off all or most of the bill. A public hospital, govt. funded also has similar programs. Don't sweat it, things will work out. Make the inquiries about financial aid through the hospitals, and get better. The Hospital Social Worker can help you with this. That's what they are for, help them justify their existance!:D

Do you own a car or are you the resident relative (do you live with your parents, wife etc) of someone who does? If so, and they have uninsured motorist insurance, you may be able to make a claim. Worth a shot.

I sell insurance for a living. This is TRUE. you can make a claim on your "uninsured motorist" section of your policy. If your parents or wife is insured and you are listed on their policy you can make a claim on that policy. I hope you didn't give up cars completley. Auto insurance is a wonderful thing in situations like this. Good luck.

Tim

I agree with above statements, hospitals charge ridiculous ammount. I remember I was charged $900 bucks for a couple mile tip in an ambulance. If I knew it, I would have told them to go to hell and walked to the hospital.

We had a bad report on our credit report due to an ambulance company's reporting us for an $18.00 dispute (that's eighteen dollars!). Our health insurance had dragged it's feet and settled (eventually) with the ambulance company, except for 18 bucks (some interest or something like that, on the original bill). A collections agency got it and my husband refused to pay it, so on our record it went. This piddling amount almost kept us from getting the best of best rate when we went to refinance our old house prior to selling; the loan agent ended up paying it so we got the best rate and I assume she got a good commision or whatever.

The debt was most likely reported to your cbr by the ambulance service while your insurance dragged out the payment process. A collection agency would only take small fraction of that $18.00 if you had payed and it would cost them more to report the debt on the original creditors behalf than the debt itself. Most medical collection agencies will not report to cbr unless there is a chance of collecting the debt, and only a substantial amount. The original creditor however, especially outside service providors such as ambulance, pathology labs etc, will report debts. This (their intent) seperates their portion of the debt incurred from a hospital visit and helps them avoid the settlements/reductions that are often negotiated.

In NY, there's the Motor Vehicle Accident Indemnification Corporation that would help you with funds should you be hit by the uninsured, is there such a thing in PA?

Too bad you weren't a Canadian citizen.

Since you can not sue for financial reasons sue her to prevent from ever legally driving a car again. Sue to have her liscense permanently revoked. Were it me in this situation I would want some satisfaction out of the deal. So sueing to have her liscense permanently revoked is what I would do.

Talk to the hospital. Many will work with you and often can forgive a certain percentage of the bill if not the whole thing. When they do that they can write if off as charity or community giving (I can't remember what they call it). The hospital system that I work for did that to the tune of $60 million last year.

timmy,
get a personal injury lawyer. i had a great one here in nj who "would not accept the case" if he was not 95% sure of winning, gave free initial consult, had outstanding para-legal assistance, and works in our area (based in Atlantic City, but has offices in Cherry Hill). may be able to refer you to PA lawyer, if needed.
his name is Ken Wallic (609) 344-2888. very professional; helped me!
good luck and fast healing!
tomg