Auto and Car Insurance

Medical Bills, go through insurance or self pay?

I recently had an accident that required me to go to the emergency room, have x-rays taken, and a soft cast put on my foot. Well now that all the fun is over the bills are rolling in. I have a very basic insurance plan through being a full-time college student that only covers $400 for outpatient emergency room care. Because of this the hospital told me to get charity care which brought the $2900 bill down to $1400. My insurance company told me though that they may be able to get a better discount since it is in their PPO network but the PPO provider (CHN) wont tell me what the dicount would be. I dont have a lot of money (being a full-time grad student) and dont want to roll the dice and go through insurance only to find out the the discount is only $300 and they cover me for $400 leaving me with a larger bill than if I went through charity care. The PPO discount for the X-Ray reading brought the bill from $61 down to $13 which is a huge discount. Does anyone know what to do?

Public Comments

1. What insurance you are able to get, I would still use it. Cause you will still be responsible for something.
2. Wow, that's a tough one. The only thing I can recommend is talking to the insurance company. Since they're the one who mentioned the discount may be better, I would think they would be able to find out for you. Tell them your dilemma. I tend to think the PPO network discount will be a better deal for you, but am not sure. I just recently saw my discount for an MRI - it went from around $2500 to around $700.