Liability & Affidavit of Support

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dumbo207

Registered Users (C)
I signed an affidavit of support, sponsoring my parents to come and visit me in feb. 2003 My parents got their visas from chennai in march of last yr. but couldnt come to visit me till Dec. 03. Within 10 days of coming here, my dad develped some serious medical conditions and had to be hospitalised for close to 3 weeks, during that time the doctors here felt there was little they could do for him here and suggested to medically evacuate him back to india. We thought everything will be okay as we had medical insurance from a company here in the States, but looks like we were wrong. They worked with us on his evacuation, there was a 10,000$ limit on the policy which they paid, & we had to pay the rest. My dad went back okay, but after all this unfortunately he passed away this feb.

Now it is april-may 04 and we are receiving all of his medical bills, the insurance company is now dilly dallying, the other providers are getting impatient and have started to send threatning letters. The insurance co was okay to pay for the evacauation but now they are taking a long long time to decide to pay for the rest of the hospitalization, and looks like they are trying to say his condition was pre existing, so my concern here is about my liability, if they dont pay up, then can the hospital and other providers come after me. All the paper work at the hospital was signed by my dad or my mom. My mom is back home in india, all of my dads possesions are in india and it wont pay all of his bills which is close to 70,000 USD. I havent signed any paperwork except for the affidavit of support.

If anybody has any info about how to contest an insurance companys decision, please shed some light. I am not even sure what kind of an attorney should i look for ?

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EB3
Finally approved in Feb 04 (5yrs 11mos 3days)
 
I am sorry for your dad. My sympathies are with you.
what i am suggesting is contact lawyer and see your options.
you might be able to settle for very less as you are not directly liable as affidavite is for living person.............i might be wrong....
 
Very sorry to hear about your dad.

What is the name of on the bill - your or your dad's ?

Here is what I suggest - contact a good Indian DOCTOR (not a LAWYER) who works at hospital. He or she should be able to tell you all the loop holes - there are conditions under which you don't have to pay.

I know the cases where they did not pay anything. However I don't know the exact details.

If the bill is not on your name - there is nothing much hospital can do about - you may feel uncomfortable - but you don't have to pay. You can send them to your mom - she is India - you are not obliged to pay.

If the bills are on your name - you need to write a letter to hospital indicating that you cannot pay... and ask them to reduce the bill - generally they will reduce to 25% (75% discount).

If you don't have money, they cannot force you to pay.....

But contact a doctor who works in the hospital - he shd be able to tell you the loop holes.

Originally posted by dumbo207
I signed an affidavit of support, sponsoring my parents to come and visit me in feb. 2003 My parents got their visas from chennai in march of last yr. but couldnt come to visit me till Dec. 03. Within 10 days of coming here, my dad develped some serious medical conditions and had to be hospitalised for close to 3 weeks, during that time the doctors here felt there was little they could do for him here and suggested to medically evacuate him back to india. We thought everything will be okay as we had medical insurance from a company here in the States, but looks like we were wrong. They worked with us on his evacuation, there was a 10,000$ limit on the policy which they paid, & we had to pay the rest. My dad went back okay, but after all this unfortunately he passed away this feb.

Now it is april-may 04 and we are receiving all of his medical bills, the insurance company is now dilly dallying, the other providers are getting impatient and have started to send threatning letters. The insurance co was okay to pay for the evacauation but now they are taking a long long time to decide to pay for the rest of the hospitalization, and looks like they are trying to say his condition was pre existing, so my concern here is about my liability, if they dont pay up, then can the hospital and other providers come after me. All the paper work at the hospital was signed by my dad or my mom. My mom is back home in india, all of my dads possesions are in india and it wont pay all of his bills which is close to 70,000 USD. I havent signed any paperwork except for the affidavit of support.

If anybody has any info about how to contest an insurance companys decision, please shed some light. I am not even sure what kind of an attorney should i look for ?

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EB3
Finally approved in Feb 04 (5yrs 11mos 3days)
Click to expand...
 
All the bills are in my dads name, if there is anybody who has gone through something similar, could you please suggest an attorneys name, that will be greatly appreciated.
 
Sorry about your loss.
I work in the hospital industry, but I'm no expert in this matter. However I can tell you this.

If you were not a gurantor during their hospital stay, all they can do is harass you with phone calls and letters. There is nothing they can do legally to make you pay or screw you credit rating. Just change your home phone number and make it unlisted.

If you signed as a gurantor at the hospital, that means that they have your SS Number and they will try to mess with your credit history. You can settle with the collection companies with agreeing to pay $20 or $30 a month and leave you alone.

Else you can contact a good lawyer and settle for a fraction of the cost.

take care
 
Last year i changed company. New company’s has policy that the insurance will come into affect only three months after joining the company.

Mean while my wife suddenly had problem in the mid night. I took her to emergency. Later they sent me bill of $2800. I was ready to pay. Mean while i spoke with my colleague from Pakistan who is here since 20 years.

Per his idea i went to hospital and told them i cannot pay this much money at one stretch i can pay only $30 a month. Make a payment plan accordingly. Then accountant went in and came out and told me If i can pay $600 once other amount will be exempted.

I paid $600 that is all.
 
dumbo - Sorry to hear about ur dad. I agree with Toolongawait..medical facilities inflate the charges if they know insurance companies r willing to pay... you can tell them that u dont have that m uch money...send them a letter stating that...as long as u didnt sign at the hospital.. i dont think u r liable....as long as they dont have ur SSN...nothing's gonna happen to u...

my suggestion..dont be rude and change ur #..try to negotiate with them initially to see how it works...if it works fine..and u can pay the amount they offer..do it...

if they dont agree to u...then change the # or whatever... as everyone here said b4...no signature..no SSN..no problem...

also tell us the insurance company..so that none of us will venture them EVER...

moreover, in the affidavit of support..did u put a clause where they ask for explanation or something..? (i usually put something like this..."PROVIDE BOARDING AND LODGING FOR 6 MONTHS ONLY"...its not that I wont do anything else..Anyway, if u have written something like that...u shouldnt worry...i doubt they'd bind u to the signature on affidavit of support..

anyone can correct me if i am wrong..

Madhav
 
Thank you all for your replies..

MadPar u asked about the insurance company...well as i said before they are still dilly dallying their decision, they havent yet said that they will not pay up, just pushing it anyway the company is AIG and i bought the policy through India Network. Will let u all know if i hear anyting new.

Also Mad par in that Affidavit where they have place for that extra clause i had written "Will provide for travel, boarding and medical expenses during their stay" I guess that is why i am even more worried, since i mentioned specifically about medical....

Also does anybody know, how one could get hold of this affidavit os support, since it was given at an embassy overseas and it has been more than a year...i wonder what happens when somebody gets a 10 yr visa and the Affidavit of support is valid for only 3 yrs.
 
dumbo - thanks for giving us the name of the insurance..AIG is supposed to be good...i guess everyone's a crook...Dont worry too much abt the affidavit of support...i doubt ur statements will come back and haunt u..

its really sad that u'd have to go thru this financial thing on top of the emotional one..I do have a friend (who I lost touch with couple of yrs back) who went thru ur situation..his dad had to go thru several things b4 he passed away in USA..I dont think he paid for everything..I am not so sure what he did. At that time, I did suggest to negotiate with the medical facility. I will try to find out what happened and get back to u. If I dont post any message, please do send me an email to mparimi@earthlink.net.
I will try to locate his number/email and start the patch-up thing.


I might not actually help u here, otherthan provide some information. Hopefully, everything will work out.

TakeCare
Madhav
 
Here is a delayed reply from my friend. I am not sure if you still need this...

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Sorry to hear about the sad demise of his father. He can
certainly negotiate with the service providers and explain the situation initailly requesting inability to pay and if they don't agree then to seek discounts and monthly payments. If the bills are coming in his name than it might screw up his credit report. The onus of payment doesn't rest with him unless he signed up the papers. He can produce a death certificate and seek
waiver, after all they can't collect money from a dead person. But you don't feel like doing this because those people helped you when you wanted them. After all they don't run any charity. So I would suggest negotiate with all the providers and settle the issue. He need not cough up all the money at once but can do a monthly payments -- and this is what I did and I am doing
even now. Generally they throw up a discount from 50 to 60%.

I am not sure how the insurance company determined that the condition was pre-existing. If he can talk to the doctor and get a statement from the doctor negating that than the insurance company will have to pay the money.
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dumbo

Go with ethics.

First it is insurance company ditching you and not that you are ditching hospital. So go after insurance by producing evidence that the condition was not preexisting. It is always a case when insurance company has to pay you, they come out with a bagful of excuses.

Take responsibility and then work with hospital to show your inability and then pay whatever you can. Think that it was your brother who worked for hospital to save your father when he was fighting for his life.
 
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