patient advocacy

The 2AM Collector Call: And What It Changed About How I Think About Medical Debt

by
The 2am Collector Call

Debt collectors frequently use high-pressure tactics, like calling at unexpected hours, to create a false sense of emergency and force immediate payments. Under federal law, phone calls from collectors before 8:00 a.m. or after 9:00 p.m. in your local time zone are illegal and can be documented as violations. Fear costs patients money. By requesting … Read more

Why I Started Telling Patients What Hospital Billing Departments Don’t Want Them to Know

by
Hospital Billing Secrets

Hospital billing departments are structurally designed to collect revenue, not to navigate patients toward financial relief programs. Millions of dollars in medical debt could be erased every year through existing charity care programs, but patients rarely receive this help because they do not know to ask. The rules governing hospital billing and collections are public, … Read more