Posted on 03/29/2023 12:09:01 PM PDT by nickcarraway
It’s been a little over a year since Keith Zipprich lost his wife, Jo, to cancer.
Jo battled that cancer for many months, as bills stacked up for those many treatments.
Keith said Jo’s insurance covered most of the costs, and she was paying other bills up until the time of her death. But about a year after she died, Keith said he was surprised when he, himself, was slapped with a lawsuit from a debt collector trying to collect on one of Jo’s unpaid bills with Uintah Basin Healthcare.
“This bill came to me in forms of a lawsuit,” Keith said. “By the time this goes all through court, they’re talking to over $3,000.”
Jo died penny-less, Keith said. She had no estate. So now, the hospital is coming after him for bills that are not his.
When he called the collection agency listed on the lawsuit, he said he was told that he’s responsible to pay for his late-wife’s medical debt under Utah law.
That is, technically, true.
Utah law considers it a “benefit” to the “family unit” when someone goes to the doctor to try and get better. Thus, medical debt is a family expense, and a hospital is free to go after “both spouses or of either of them separately” for such unpaid debts.
Jason Iuliano, who teaches consumer law at the University of Utah, said the law is “absurd.”
Iuliano said the law’s origins go back hundreds of years, to a time before women could own property or enter into contracts.
“It came about as a way for women, in short, to basically buy goods and services and bill them to their husbands because they couldn’t actually enter into the contracts themselves,” he said. “It just doesn’t have a place in modern society.”
More and more states agree. At one point, what is on Utah’s books was the law of the land, but in recent years, 10 states have repealed the law, allowing surviving spouses to be sued personally for unpaid medical debt. A hospital or doctor could go after the estate, but if the estate has nothing, then the hospital cannot collect for the person who didn’t incur the debt, Iuliano said.
Get Gephardt asked Iuliano if there is anything a spouse in Utah can do to avoid getting slapped with the bills themselves if their spouse is terminally ill. The answer is grim.
“Divorce your spouse, or to move out of the house and no longer cohabitate with your spouse,” he said. “Obviously, both of those are terrible options.”
By email, Uintah Basin Healthcare Vice President Maigen Zobell defended its collection practices, writing, “Uintah Basin Healthcare follows standard legal collection practices and we are confident that our collection agencies do the same.”
Zobell wrote they are “still willing to work with Keith on this matter.”
He added, “It is standard practice that a deceased patient’s spouse is considered responsible for the patient’s remaining debt,” and pointed to previous reporting done by the KSL Investigators on the matter.
In a report from 2020, the KSL Investigators found that, while it is allowed legally, it is not standard practice for all doctors and hospitals. The University of Utah Hospital, for example, made it their policy a few years ago to not go after a surviving spouse for medical bills they incurred before death.
Move........................
Double whammy.
It wouldn’t be as much of an issue if medical costs weren’t 10x what they should be.
When spouse is not expected to survive advanced cancer, may be a uncontested divorce followed by transferring all assets to the healthy spouse will help eliminate this problem.
This guy acts like this is a total surprise. Community property, filing taxes jointly, homestead exemptions. Being shocked - SHOCKED - isn’t going to work.
Good idea, as long as he has not been served with a summons and complaint.
I’m torn on this. Services were rendered and the recipient is on the hook for them. I’ve been in the medical field and revenue goes to pay largely for employees and their benefits, including insurance.
What I don’t like is doctors not explaining this in advance.
Bills should be barred if they are not submitted in a timely matter so insurance will pay them.
Estoppel?
Who should eat the bill?
If it’s not Keith then the cost is recouped from everyone else that visits the hospital. I don’t get why people think the burden of their healthcare is everyone else’s burden to bear for them.
Most large health care organizations make sure insurers will pay them.
My wife’s insurance is Tricare that she gets because I’m retired military and the sponsor. So I expect to be responsible for her medical bills and pay them.
If they were illegals, it would cost them nothing. If they were life-time welfare collectors, it would have cost them nothing.
Illegals and welfare collectors have better healthcare coverage than most of us. They don’t get denied service.
Look back rules, just like medicaid for nursing home care.
I agree. Spouses are responsible for each others’ debts almost everywhere. The guy is clueless or dishonest. I rather doubt that a lawsuit was the first attempt to collect this debt.
The “cost” of a service is far less than the bill. A price or charge is not a cost.
If the service is futile then the provider should eat the cost.
What is hard about being on the hook for services consumed? Fill up the cart at the grocery, pay for them. Turn on the lights, pay the electric bill. Fill the car with gas, pay the station.
Up until Covid misdiagnoses was the number 4 killer. However with Covid those numbers are much higher many were out and out murder for higher.
pay the bills and be done with it.
don’t let the last memory of your wife be that of a deadbeat.
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