- Prepare for escalating medical costs by taking a hard look at your current household budget and expenses and see if there’s any place that can be cut.
- Make friends with the billing people at the hospital and the doctors office. Let them know your circumstance and ask them to work with you on a discount and payment plan.
- Ask the billing folks or a hospital social worker about financial assistance programs. Likewise, ask them if any of the drugs they’re prescribing have a pharmaceutical co-pay assistance program.
- Check your credit report to be sure medical debt isn’t showing up on it. Familiarize yourself with ways to get bad marks removed from your credit report by going into the chat room of www.myfico.com.
- If a bill does show up on your credit report and you can’t get the credit reporting agency to remove it, call the creditor and see if you can negotiate having the bad mark removed if you pay off the debt
Do you have any recommendations or resources? Please leave them in the comments section below.
