Help Mandy Pay Epilepsy Car Crash Bills
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During a family visit in August 2017, I suffered a tonic-clonic seizure while driving my sister's car and crashed off the side of the road. I felt thankful that I had avoided any other cars or pedestrians.
I was ambulanced in a groggy state to St. Joseph’s, a Tampa, Florida-based hospital, where testing diagnosed and confirmed that I have primary generalized epilepsy. Though fortunate to have suffered only minor injuries due to the crash, I was put through multiple tests to confirm my condition.
The hospital bill initially totaled $26,228, plus other bills that showed up later from imaging scans and individual doctors who had seen me over the course of my two-day stay. The final bill amounted to $28,258.
To complicate receiving the news about my health and recovering from the crash, I was just a few weeks away from my new job’s health insurance kicking in. I hadn’t been able to afford health insurance for almost a year before getting my new job, though I had been paying for psychiatrist visits and medication out of pocket as I tried to stay on top of my Bipolar Disorder after a prior hospitalization related to that. Most psychiatrists don’t take health insurance, so any squirreled away savings had to go to these mental health costs.
I applied for financial aid through the hospital, but my new job’s salary was just higher than the Federal poverty line, so I was denied assistance with my bill. The only alternative St. Joseph’s offered was financing through a medical credit card company called Medmax, but the irony was that I didn’t qualify for this financing because my new job’s salary wasn’t high enough. I was stuck in the middle.
To add to the financial nightmare, my sister’s car had lapsed insurance for one day as she was changing to a new policy, so I wasn’t covered for the damage inflicted on her car, which totaled around $3,000. My family knew I was broke and graciously covered these costs as I got back on my feet.
Over the past two years, I’ve been going back and forth with the hospital over the bills. They threatened to put a lien on me, and ultimately refused to negotiate over a lower total. Eventually, they started the process of sending the bill to collections.
Thankfully, I still had six months to negotiate the bill between the debt collectors and the hospital before the debt went to collections with finality. After more negotiations, the hospital and debt collectors have agreed to a $7,000 settlement paid on or before August 19th, which means I have a month to come up with that amount.
$7,000 is far more than what I earn in one month at my current job and my savings have been depleted through paying ongoing bills related to my epilepsy and bipolar disorder. I’m also still repaying debts incurred during a different hospitalization, and am slowly trying to pay back my sister and family for $3,000 worth of repairs to her car.
Any donations you could give would help so much. I’d rest much easier knowing that I won’t have to face wage garnishment or bankruptcy. I am in a good place with my epilepsy and BD, have a job I love, and am always sure to carry health insurance these days! Getting over this huge hump would mean the world to me. Thanks so much, y’all!
I was ambulanced in a groggy state to St. Joseph’s, a Tampa, Florida-based hospital, where testing diagnosed and confirmed that I have primary generalized epilepsy. Though fortunate to have suffered only minor injuries due to the crash, I was put through multiple tests to confirm my condition.
The hospital bill initially totaled $26,228, plus other bills that showed up later from imaging scans and individual doctors who had seen me over the course of my two-day stay. The final bill amounted to $28,258.
To complicate receiving the news about my health and recovering from the crash, I was just a few weeks away from my new job’s health insurance kicking in. I hadn’t been able to afford health insurance for almost a year before getting my new job, though I had been paying for psychiatrist visits and medication out of pocket as I tried to stay on top of my Bipolar Disorder after a prior hospitalization related to that. Most psychiatrists don’t take health insurance, so any squirreled away savings had to go to these mental health costs.
I applied for financial aid through the hospital, but my new job’s salary was just higher than the Federal poverty line, so I was denied assistance with my bill. The only alternative St. Joseph’s offered was financing through a medical credit card company called Medmax, but the irony was that I didn’t qualify for this financing because my new job’s salary wasn’t high enough. I was stuck in the middle.
To add to the financial nightmare, my sister’s car had lapsed insurance for one day as she was changing to a new policy, so I wasn’t covered for the damage inflicted on her car, which totaled around $3,000. My family knew I was broke and graciously covered these costs as I got back on my feet.
Over the past two years, I’ve been going back and forth with the hospital over the bills. They threatened to put a lien on me, and ultimately refused to negotiate over a lower total. Eventually, they started the process of sending the bill to collections.
Thankfully, I still had six months to negotiate the bill between the debt collectors and the hospital before the debt went to collections with finality. After more negotiations, the hospital and debt collectors have agreed to a $7,000 settlement paid on or before August 19th, which means I have a month to come up with that amount.
$7,000 is far more than what I earn in one month at my current job and my savings have been depleted through paying ongoing bills related to my epilepsy and bipolar disorder. I’m also still repaying debts incurred during a different hospitalization, and am slowly trying to pay back my sister and family for $3,000 worth of repairs to her car.
Any donations you could give would help so much. I’d rest much easier knowing that I won’t have to face wage garnishment or bankruptcy. I am in a good place with my epilepsy and BD, have a job I love, and am always sure to carry health insurance these days! Getting over this huge hump would mean the world to me. Thanks so much, y’all!
Organizer
Mandy Spirito
Organizer
Durham, NC
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