Mired In Medical Debt? Federal Rule Changes Proposed For Bill Collectors

Elham Mirshafiei was at the library cramming for final exams during her senior year at California State University, Long Beach when she grew nauseated and started vomiting. After the 10th episode in an hour, a friend took her to the nearest emergency room. Diagnosis: an intestinal bug and severe dehydration. In a few hours, she was home again, with instructions to eat a bland diet and drink plenty of fluids.

That was in 2010. But the $4,000 bill for the brief emergency department visit at an out-of-network hospital has trailed her ever since. Mirshafiei, 31, has a good job now as a licensed insurance adviser in Palo Alto, Calif. But money is still tight, and her priority is paying off her $67,000 student loan debt rather than that old hospital bill.

Once or twice a year she gets a letter from a collection agency. She ignores the letters, and so far the consequences have been manageable. “It’s not like electricity that gets cut off if you don’t pay it,” she says.