What Happens When You Can’t Pay for Maternity Care?
Maternity care usually begins immediately after giving birth. These are the services you receive as the mother and the child the first week after delivery. In most cases, the maternity nurse is the one involved in taking care of you. Maternity nurses are instrumental in ensuring that you adjust as they monitor your recovery process. Most importantly, they also check the newborn baby’s health.
A maternity nurse also has the responsibility of showing you and your family how to handle the baby. Some even help in chores especially if you haven’t employed a nanny. Most times, the billing of maternal care is usually after the services.
For example, an emergency treatment has to be done for you or the baby, it’s usually unexpected and may end up hurting your finances. The unforeseen occurrence may end up crippling you financially especially because you may just be recovering from months of not being at work and may have an unpaid maternity leave.
Most times, when emergencies occur, you may end up falling behind on your maternity care bills. One biggest difference between hospitals and institutions like banks is that banks have a direct relationship with the credit bureaus. Therefore, in case you have any outstanding debt, and you have a monthly payment plan, then it’s easier to update the bureaus. However, for hospitals, most of the times, they don’t have a direct relationship therefore in any case you have a maternity care debt, and you have been paying, the credit bureaus may not be aware.
The Headache of Being Forwarded to a Collection Agency
Look at this scenario where your insurance cover caters for some selective expenses, and you may be required to top up some money so that your maternity care expenses are covered. By default, you are unable to pay and that leaves a debt under your name. If months go by without honoring the debt despite the medical provider pressuring you with numerous calls: they may be pushed to hire a collections agency.
As you know, bad debt messes up your credit report rating. Some companies ask for your credit report before hiring you so if the rating is poor; the likelihood of being hired is very low. Hence, the importance of ensuring your credit score is good. Once the collection agency is hired, they will push you to a corner with the pressure of trying to regain the money for their client.
Locating You
Once the collection agency agrees with their client, they start the process of debt recovery. Sometimes, you may think that the agency may not find you, but experienced ones will use the personal information you gave out when applying for the maternal care. In any case, if you have moved, there must have been somebody you listed on your application, and they will be traced too.
How do Medical Bills Get on Your Credit Report
Nobody likes getting into debt, but it may be inevitable. Maternal care is almost mandatory as it determines how healthy your baby will. Hence, when the time comes, and you are unable to clear the bill, it’s very stressing. You may be hopeful that you will settle the debt after a short time but by bad luck, a financial crisis occurs, and you are unable to pay.
Health insurance may cover you, but you may be required to pay an amount of money. One mistake people make is that they never get clarification from the insurance company on what they cover and what they do not cover. They end up assuming that the firm has paid, but in reality, a huge sum of debt has piled up in the hospital. Always ensure that you have full information on the coverage because failure to pay leads to a poor credit rating.
Once you are unable to pay the debt amidst follow-ups from collection agencies, your inability to pay the bill finds its way to the credit bureaus. Once it does, your credit score is affected immensely and may last for a long time before you are fully cleared. You can click here to find out more on collections.
Does Clearance of Maternity Care Bill Change your Credit Rating?
One way of improving your credit score is by using credit repair companies. They come in handy most especially when the information on the credit report is not accurate. You may find that you cleared your bill, but the medical provider didn’t update the information hence the poor credit score.
However, if the debt is genuine, even if you pay off your debt, your credit score may not change immediately. Rebuilding your credit score could be quite a journey because the credit agencies have to make sure that you don’t fall behind with debt repayment again hence it may take time.
Always ensure that you pay your bills in time to avoid them interfering with your credit score. Also, work out flexible loan repayment timelines with people you owe.
