My first thought was that this is why you have uninsured motorist coverage. Then I see that you were paid something from your insurance company. So my next thought is did you settle for too little from your insurance company? Did you work with an attorney to make sure you got everything you deserved from YOUR insurance company? Insurange companies are of course in business to make money and not to look out for your best interests. I would try to see if there is anything more you can pursue with your insurance company.

If that is not possible then I'd think long and hard about what I could pay and not have my entire life devasted. I'd then write up a synopsis of the situation and proposal for what I could pay (say X per month for X years for a total of X). And then I'd present that to whoever I owed and say this is it - this is all I can do and all I'm going to do. See if they will accept and write-off the rest of it. They write off bad debt all the time. I would press very hard to get them to accept the reduced payment. If they do not I'd still just pay whatever modest amount I could on a regular schedule over the long term - knowing the debt may never really get settled. I would pay regularly - not sporadically - and I'd not lose sleep over it.

Yours is a difficult situation - reminds all of us how quickly life could take a very devastating turn.

Bless you heart!!

I don't know what to tell you, except check to see if you have gotten everything from your insurance you can.

Talk with your doctor, drug companies have programs that give medications free for some people.

You know, it might be worth the expense to find an attorney who specializes in debt problems and have a talk about it.

You might talk to a lawyer specializing in these types of situations. You mentioned it happened several years ago. Is the person around, still driving, working, etc? Could you go back to HIS insurance, not yours for additional help? You may not get the bills ever paid off, but are you checking each one? Did you get the services you were charged for? Do you get the services at one center or several? Have you talked to the person in charge of billing at the medical centers. Are there services charges being added? Have some like a financial counsleour go over the bills and make sure the medical offices are not double billing and/or double charging. They do this a lot and my Blue Cross is always dening the charges because they will submit a charge, change the code slightly and re-submit it. Yes this will take time, but might be worth it in the long run.
If you are doing the best you can, and paying something on each bill, they are not allowed to harrass you. Make sure the bills from before are complety paid off and the medical offices sends you letters and statements showing this information. Be firm, polite but inist that these bills are really yours and not "plumped" up.
Good luck.

this guy that hit you, did he have anything else of value that you could go after, house, retirement plan, 401k ??? if so get a lawyer and go get it.

Retirement assets are often beyond reach, but other assets might be up for grabs. You should go for it.

This might be of help.

"2. Negotiate Your Hospital Bill

For patients with insurance, the hospital co-pay or deductible can represent a very large amount of money. Some insurance companies will deduct this amount from the hospital's contracted rate. The unpaid portion is then your responsibility.

Here's a fact many hospitals won't openly admit: They're often willing to waive or reduce an account balance if a patient can demonstrate that the co-pay or deductible is a hardship. But you have to ask.

"The patient can go back to an account administrator and say, 'This is really difficult for me. Is there anything you can do?' And we can," says Ruth Levin, vice president for managed care at Continuum Health Partners in New York City. "The number of payers, including patients and insurance plans, who pay hospitals 100 percent of our charges is probably less than 2 percent."

*Save 10 to 30 percent"

A link that might be useful:

Save Thousands On Your Health Care
10 Surprising -- and Easy -- Ways to Trim Costs on Everything From Your Yearly Physical to Specialized Surgery
By JULIAN KESNER-ABC News-Prevention
June 20, 2008

abcnews.go.com/images/Health/prevention_080619_mn.jpg

You won't like this answer, but here goes--declare personal bankruptcy. It's not likely that you're going to ever pay off $400,000 worth of medical bills. You can try to negotiate with the hospital, esp. if you can get a reporter involved, so as to try to shame them into cutting down the bill.

Or if you tell the hospital that they can settle for a reasonable amount or you'll declare bankruptcy. Are the bills in your name only?

Try this. Call an insurance adjuster to work on your behalf. they get paid a maximum percentage by law
get in touch with your state insurance board and ask them what the law allows in your state.
maybe they have a list of licensed adjusters to send you.

lawyers are not always a solution.

the adjuster will take less of a percentage by law than the attorney in addition how to get more money from the insurance company.

I hope everyone had a great Christmas. I've been busy with family and finally had time to read everyone posts and can't tell you THANK YOU enough.
I will re-read each word and then write down your ideas and go from there. I will speak to my hubbie about your suggestions and see where we go from here. I can tell you the hospital has worked with us some to reduce the bills but ONLY after they put a lien on my house. That is another long story - my Uncle called me several months after the accident to tell me the hospital had put a lien on my home. What they said is my insurance didn't pay them so I would be responsible for the WHOLE amount. YES.. that was their explanation. The hospital claimed the insurance never paid them. My insurance company said they never got a bill until Jan which was 6 months after. The insurance required the hospital to submit bills within 90 days. The hospital said they faxed the bills - but that the insurance refused to pay off of a faxed bill. My insurance company said they pay off of faxed bills all the time. The hospital then said they sent a bill via a certified postal letter with a requested receipt upon delivery but when the attorney asked for the copy of this and also requested copies from the post office there was NOT ANYTHING. The hospital brought their big attorneys from Houston and my little attorney took it to Federal Court (So as to get a fair trial and not have the Judges playing golf with the lawyers, etc) and it was settled very soon. It was a horrible mess. I never dreamed I could take on a huge hospital but it can be done.
As one persom said "Life can change in an instant"
I don't want to declare bankrupcy - just my personal feelings. That would be my last resort but at least it could be an option if all else fails. Our underinsured coverage was $50,000 which if given to a person in normal circumstances sounds like a lot of money but half went to medical bills, the rest bought a 3 year old Nissan and the rest started an IRA and my daughters college fund. If I had a do-over I would have taken that money and moved to a small Island and started over there.(Not really but it sounds good)
Anyway, thank you again.
Sunny

I am afraid that I still don't understand what happened--did your insurance pay any of the hospital's expenses? It sounds to me like you need to go after your insurance co. too. & I don't understand why your uncle knew about the lien before you (not that I need to know) Did you have health insurance or only just your auto insurance?

For the company to escape responsibility just because it says it didn't get the bills by a certain deadline sounds like attorney bait to me!!

Most every hospital communicates electronically with insurance companies these days. Although with some insurance companies/plans it is your responsibility to file with the insurance. And the bills would have started to go out before you were even discharged. Unless you were in some tiny place that is still operating like they did in the 1970's. But you said it was a big hospital.

The local hospitals here put a notice and spplication on the back of every bill for how to get financial aid. I realise that doesn't happen everywhere, and different states have different resources. For example, my state has a fund for assisting victims. Maybe yours does too.

I appreciate your desire to provide for your daughter's education (been there) but she may have to do what many do--pay her own way. Does she pay for the horse and riding activities?

You chose to use half of your insurance reimbursement ($25000) for other things, so if you really aren't comfortable with that decision, perhaps you need to revisit it. Do you have other sources of retirement (your husbands job, is there a pension or 401k?)You may qualify for financial hardship withdrawal, but that would be my last resort.

Another thought--partial disablility? if you are limited in how much you can work, compared to before the accident?

I REALLY admire your desire to be financially responsible for these bills. This is the kind of catastrophic expense that no one is really prepared for. Wish I had a solution for you. Good luck.

I'm also confused as to what happened. Did you have health ins. at that time in addition to your auto ins? If so, it should have started picking up the bills that the auto ins. didn't pay. Also, the hospital needs to prove that they got the bills in to the first payer (your ins. company) on time. If they failed to meet the deadline, then they would have to write the bills off, not come after you. It is their responsibility to send the bills to the ins. company on time (unless your state laws are different from mine). My mom had cancer & was going to Duke University for treatment. She had excellent coverage & had primary & secondary policies. We got a letter after she died telling my dad that he owed them a lot of money. The ins. company said that that Duke had never submitted the bills to them. We got an attorney involved & they finally admitted that they had discovered the error & we just trying to get paid. They wrote everything off.