Healthcare costs - not insurance Do I need to pay hospital bill

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sharkattack

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I recently had to go to A&E after having a minor accident at home. I paid my 100 Euro which is fair enough. Turns out I had a number of broken toes. I was asked if I had health insurance and I genuinely didn't know but the hospital looked it up on there system and they had a record of me attending previously with health cover but I didn't sign anything.
Anyway got the xray and was told of what was broke and that I could go home but to come back down the following morning as they needed to do a procedure on one of the toes. So went down the next morning and got the day procedure done.
All was well until I got bill for 400 Euro's a couple of days later. Not thinking that was to bad I was prepared to pay it. It turns out I don't have health insurance since my partner moved jobs recently and the new company doesn't have a health scheme so we dropped cover. The hospital were looking at relative of mine when checking their records who has the same name as me and assumed I had cover.
Then a few days later I get another bill for 700 Euro for the treatment. So now I owe the hospital over 1K.
My question is do I have to pay this bill? I'm currently out of work and on Covid payment. Is it not the hospitals fault for assuming I had health cover? I never asked for Private care. I assumed once you paid your A&E would were pretty much done? What would have happened if I need major surgery that night - would get a bill for ten of thousands euro?.
 
Absolutely not. It's a public hospital, you're entitled to free treatment. You can OPT to be treated as a private patient if you wish. There is no obligation to do so whether or not you have private health insurance.
 
Why has this happened, the private system has come under state control for the moment so OP should not have been billed.
 
Saavy99,

The OP did not state that the ED is in a private hosp.

Most EDs are in public hosps.
 
What I mean is they should be no charges at all at the moment as we don't have a private system. OP should just have been charged for the ED fee. He did not even stay a night in the hospital.
 
OP here - yes it was a public hospital I attended and yes I didn't stay overnight. I am getting aggressive warning letters to pay up. No problem paying the 100 Euro A&E charge.
 
sharkattack said:
OP here - yes it was a public hospital I attended and yes I didn't stay overnight. I am getting aggressive warning letters to pay up. No problem paying the 100 Euro A&E charge.
Click to expand...

Did you call them?? Get onto your local electoral representative to sort this for you.
 
You didn't sign anything stating that you had health insurance. Email them telling them that, also tell them that they presumed you had health insurance when you didn't, that they used a relative's name when checking previous attendance and that that could be a breach of GDPR and that you won't be paying and are considering your legal options.
 
There is obviously some confusion.

For some reason, the public hosp classified the patient as a private patient.

There may have been some mis-communication.

I would not approach a TD, that seems like too much for what seems to be a fairly minor administrative issue.
 
sharkattack said:
I recently had to go to A&E after having a minor accident at home. I paid my 100 Euro which is fair enough. Turns out I had a number of broken toes. I was asked if I had health insurance and I genuinely didn't know but the hospital looked it up on there system and they had a record of me attending previously with health cover but I didn't sign anything.
Anyway got the xray and was told of what was broke and that I could go home but to come back down the following morning as they needed to do a procedure on one of the toes. So went down the next morning and got the day procedure done.
All was well until I got bill for 400 Euro's a couple of days later. Not thinking that was to bad I was prepared to pay it. It turns out I don't have health insurance since my partner moved jobs recently and the new company doesn't have a health scheme so we dropped cover. The hospital were looking at relative of mine when checking their records who has the same name as me and assumed I had cover.
Then a few days later I get another bill for 700 Euro for the treatment. So now I owe the hospital over 1K.
My question is do I have to pay this bill? I'm currently out of work and on Covid payment. Is it not the hospitals fault for assuming I had health cover? I never asked for Private care. I assumed once you paid your A&E would were pretty much done? What would have happened if I need major surgery that night - would get a bill for ten of thousands euro?.
Click to expand...
On what date did you attend A & E
 
OP here again...This is all very recent. Accident was about 3/4 weeks ago at this stage. I rang them but didn't get much satisfaction when the bills arrived. Kind of hoped it would go away but as I say the demand letters are getting more threatening. I'll try email them again to explain that I never asked for private treatment or signed anything to that effect. They wrongfully assumed I had private insurance as they had mistaken me for a relative with the same name who was on their system as having Health insurance the last time they visited. Thanks for replies.
 
OP here..Just an update. I sent a letter to hospital outlining that I never requested private care. Got a letter back to say they had mistakenly treated me as a private patient and I did not have to pay bills. In fact I am due to get 20 euro back from the 100 Euro I paid at A&E what ever that is about. Anyway happy with the result. Thanks all who responded
 
The €20 is probably a reference to submitting a MED1 to Revenue after the year end and getting 20% tax rebate on medical costs.
 
sharkattack said:
OP here..Just an update. I sent a letter to hospital outlining that I never requested private care. Got a letter back to say they had mistakenly treated me as a private patient and I did not have to pay bills. In fact I am due to get 20 euro back from the 100 Euro I paid at A&E what ever that is about. Anyway happy with the result. Thanks all who responded
Click to expand...

Great result!
 
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