Told I Owe $15,000 To A Medical Clinic After Never Receiving A Bill.

I’m sorry if this is the wrong sub to post this too. I’m really unsure where to go for information or what to do about this issue. I’ll try to keep this brief, but want to make sure it makes sense.

About a year and a half ago, I started going to a medical clinic for treatment for treatment resistant depression. During each clinic visit, I would be given the medication and then have to stay for two hours so that my blood pressure could be checked. The medication is expensive and due to my income, I am able to get the med from the pharmaceutical company at no cost to me. So I was only charged for the two hours and having my blood pressure taken 3 times. I rarely even saw the doctor running it.

So when I first started going to this clinic, I persistently checked in with the office manager/billing person. She kept putting me off saying she wasn’t sure how the billing would work because it had to be processed through Medicare. A few weeks later I ask her again and she says that Medicare will pay it and not to worry about what the visit was costing but just pay whatever I can. This didn’t sit well with me and made me skeptical. I never received a bill. When others would check in they would collect their copay and then tell them if they had a balance to pay. Nothing was ever said to me about a balance.

Earlier this year, that office manager was gone. From what I understand, she was fired. The manager that replaced her has been doing the job for months. Last week, I received a call from her. She said she wanted to make me aware that I owe them $15,000. I was beyond shocked. How could I have a balance that large and was never informed. I found some statements from Medicare and from the time the former office manager was there, there seems to be possibly fraudulent charges for services I did not receive.

Also I will say that this is a small clinic. They don’t have lots of patents so the fact that she just “realized what I owe” seems like crap to me. I have never received one bill from them. What kind of business doesn’t bill you? If I owe $10 to any medical provider I am definitely going to receive a bill.

I do feel like some of this is my fault for not continually following up. I started trusting everyone there and let it go. So I’m completely confused on what to do. I certainly don’t have $15,000. Hell I only have a few hundred dollars in my bank account.

The manager wants me to come in this morning to talk about this. I’m a pushover though and worry about what to say. Does anyone have any advice on how to handle this? Is there a different sub I should post this too? Do I need to seek legal advice from a lawyer?

Thanks for reading if you made it this far.