is it true that you cant get in with bad credit?

[batista_123]

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I have bad credit due to a couple of hospital bills. now I am a good citizen and i pay my bills, but these 2 bills were just ridiculous. first bill: I had an incision in my finger due to infection. The bill for that was fair, doctor provided service, needs to get paid.
3 days later i go to the emergency room and the doctor there opens the gauz and tells me i am good to go, charges me $600! I could have opened it myself. so i refused to pay.
second time: I had a clogged ear, went to emergency room, they made me wait for like 4 hours and finally the doctor, who didnt know what the hell he was doing, tells me they dont have the proper equipment to wash out ears! charges me $300. I refused to pay.

is it true that med schools check your credit?

 

[cdmarshbu]

My google works better than your google apparently. Here is just one example from one school, but it seems they have a pretty clear system in place:

http://www.mcw.edu/medicalschool/creditreport.htm

"An applicant must provide a clean credit report by the deadline date given on their acceptance letter. The Financial Aid Office will review all credit reports submitted. If a decision is made that the credit report has adverse** information, there will be additional requirements for the applicant.
Credit approval is based on federally mandated criteria, not a credit score. In order to qualify, the student may not have any of the following items on their credit report:

• Any current delinquency of 90 days or more
• Any of the following items within the preceding five years of the date of the credit report: Default, Bankruptcy, Discharge, Foreclosure, Repossession, Tax Lien, Wage Garnishment, Write-off of a Title IV Debt, Open Collection"

To answer your question, yes you can get in with bad credit...but it also looks like they can rescind the offer if you don't meet their credit requirements.

 

[Kaustikos]

I have bad credit due to a couple of hospital bills. now I am a good citizen and i pay my bills, but these 2 bills were just ridiculous. first bill: I had an incision in my finger due to infection. The bill for that was fair, doctor provided service, needs to get paid.
3 days later i go to the emergency room and the doctor there opens the gauz and tells me i am good to go, charges me $600! I could have opened it myself. so i refused to pay.
second time: I had a clogged ear, went to emergency room, they made me wait for like 4 hours and finally the doctor, who didnt know what the hell he was doing, tells me they dont have the proper equipment to wash out ears! charges me $300. I refused to pay.

is it true that med schools check your credit?

You have bad credit because you have bills? What, did you not pay them at all? I have a $2000 hospital bill and great credit. What the hell did you do?

 

[kami333]

Some due, to make sure you qualify for loans.

Take care of your debts, deadbeat 😛

And get health insurance.

 

[GrantN]

You have bad credit because you have bills? What, did you not pay them at all? I have a $2000 hospital bill and great credit. What the hell did you do?

He/ she could have a completely different situation, maybe less fortunate, maybe no coverage, higher cost(2000 is nothing), thus he/she could have a 20,000$ hospital bill and terrible credit.

 

[NickNaylor]

I highly doubt credit is used as a criterion for admission, but you bet your balls it'll impact your ability to get loans.

 

[OhioDoc]

I have bad credit due to a couple of hospital bills. now I am a good citizen and i pay my bills, but these 2 bills were just ridiculous. first bill: I had an incision in my finger due to infection. The bill for that was fair, doctor provided service, needs to get paid.
3 days later i go to the emergency room and the doctor there opens the gauz and tells me i am good to go, charges me $600! I could have opened it myself. so i refused to pay.
second time: I had a clogged ear, went to emergency room, they made me wait for like 4 hours and finally the doctor, who didnt know what the hell he was doing, tells me they dont have the proper equipment to wash out ears! charges me $300. I refused to pay.

is it true that med schools check your credit?

Some medical schools will ask you for a credit report. Information in your credit report will also affect your ability to quality for Federal GRAD Plus loans (credit doesn't matter for Stafford loans - but these are limited) - you might need a cosigner who has good credit.

FYI - most hospitals have a system for reducing your obligation (the amount you owe them) based on your income...

 

[longwhorn]

Every financial aid counselor I have talked to (state schools) said first get in and then we'll figure out how to pay for it. Financial reasons should keep no deserving student out of medical school. Also, you may be denied for your lack of ability to pay at a private school but no public school would deny you based on a bad credit score. Thats a supreme court case waiting to happen..

 

[Kaustikos]

He/ she could have a completely different situation, maybe less fortunate, maybe no coverage, higher cost(2000 is nothing), thus he/she could have a 20,000$ hospital bill and terrible credit.

Ummm.... Im done

 

[apumic]

I have bad credit due to a couple of hospital bills. now I am a good citizen and i pay my bills, but these 2 bills were just ridiculous. first bill: I had an incision in my finger due to infection. The bill for that was fair, doctor provided service, needs to get paid.
3 days later i go to the emergency room and the doctor there opens the gauz and tells me i am good to go, charges me $600! I could have opened it myself. so i refused to pay.
second time: I had a clogged ear, went to emergency room, they made me wait for like 4 hours and finally the doctor, who didnt know what the hell he was doing, tells me they dont have the proper equipment to wash out ears! charges me $300. I refused to pay.

is it true that med schools check your credit?

The above is what I've always heard. It could certainly have an impact on admissions as schools may not want to take the risk of you being unable to pay.

The larger problem here, however, appears to be one of taking responsibility for your actions. Yes, visits to the ED are expensive. They should be. Honestly, why did your ear get clogged such that you needed to go to the ED right then and couldn't make a far less expensive visit to your PCP or student health center (if in school)? Heck... if you're indigent, a free clinic could have helped you w/ both of those things. As for the finger, I'm a little confused why you were in the ED for that. So you injured your finger and it got infected so you saw a doctor and then you went to the ED for a followup? ... People go to the ED for stupid things all the time and some, like you, do go to the ED and then refuse to pay; however, I don't think people like that should be complaining when it ruins their credit scores....

 

[morning]

I have bad credit due to a couple of hospital bills. now I am a good citizen and i pay my bills, but these 2 bills were just ridiculous. first bill: I had an incision in my finger due to infection. The bill for that was fair, doctor provided service, needs to get paid.
3 days later i go to the emergency room and the doctor there opens the gauz and tells me i am good to go, charges me $600! I could have opened it myself. so i refused to pay.
second time: I had a clogged ear, went to emergency room, they made me wait for like 4 hours and finally the doctor, who didnt know what the hell he was doing, tells me they dont have the proper equipment to wash out ears! charges me $300. I refused to pay.

is it true that med schools check your credit?

I'm pretty sure your ideas about paying doctors will change when/if you become one. I can't believe someone aspiring to medical school would be so dismissive of paying doctors/hospitals what they charge. Not to mention that you went to the ED for such minor crap, and then complained that they didn't treat you exactly as royally as you wanted to be treated.

I wonder if you're in the Things I Learn From My Patient thread?

 

[ThaliaNox]

There are schools where admission is contingent on a clean credit report, (MCW is a prime example) however, they are in the minority. Shame on you for not taking care of your bills, though. If your bills were really wrong, you should have talked to the hospital about it, not decided you weren't going to pay them.

 

[Perrotfish]

I'm pretty sure your ideas about paying doctors will change when/if you become one. I can't believe someone aspiring to medical school would be so dismissive of paying doctors/hospitals what they charge. Not to mention that you went to the ED for such minor crap, and then complained that they didn't treat you exactly as royally as you wanted to be treated.

I honestly think he has more of an argument than you're giving him credit for. No other service besides the healthcare is allowed to wait until after they provide a service to tell you what they're charging you for it. The idea of an ED charging someone with clogged ears $300 to NOT clean his ears is particularly ridiiculous. They're charging him several days pay to not provide a service. If you went into a restaurant, sat down, ordered a meal, were told they didn't have any food, and you got up and left do you really think they would be justified for charging you for the time the server spent with you? Would you pay if they did?

 

[morning]

This honestly is sort of an interesting argument. No other service besides the healthcare is allowed to wait until after they provide a service to tell you what they're charging you for it. The idea of an ED charging someone with clogged ears $300 to NOT clean his ears is particularly ridiiculous. If you went into a restaurant, sat down, ordered a meal, were told they didn't have any food, and you got up and left do you really think they would be justified for charging you for the time the server spent with you? Would you pay if they did?

You're paying for the hospital's time, the nurse's time, ward clerk's time, the physician's time. This person is not telling the whole truth about what went on. I doubt they went in and said "my ears are clogged, clean them!" They went in with an ear problem and were examined by the doctor, who then informed the patient what the problem was and that it could not be treated there.

And if they seriously went in knowing what the problem was and wasted the time of so many people - forcing many other people to wait - I'm cool with their $300 bill, which is more like a FINE than a fee for service. You can get penalties for misusing 911 - why not emergency rooms?

 

[EscapedGoat]

I have bad credit due to a couple of hospital bills. now I am a good citizen and i pay my bills, but these 2 bills were just ridiculous. first bill: I had an incision in my finger due to infection. The bill for that was fair, doctor provided service, needs to get paid.
3 days later i go to the emergency room and the doctor there opens the gauz and tells me i am good to go, charges me $600! I could have opened it myself. so i refused to pay.
second time: I had a clogged ear, went to emergency room, they made me wait for like 4 hours and finally the doctor, who didnt know what the hell he was doing, tells me they dont have the proper equipment to wash out ears! charges me $300. I refused to pay.

is it true that med schools check your credit?

You should share this anecdote in your personal statement. Then you won't have to worry about any med schools checking your credit.

 

[Perrotfish]

You're paying for the hospital's time, the nurse's time, ward clerk's time, the physician's time. This person is not telling the whole truth about what went on. I doubt they went in and said "my ears are clogged, clean them!" They went in with an ear problem and were examined by the doctor, who then informed the patient what the problem was and that it could not be treated there.

And if they seriously went in knowing what the problem was and wasted the time of so many people - forcing many other people to wait - I'm cool with their $300 bill, which is more like a FINE than a fee for service. You can get penalties for misusing 911 - why not emergency rooms?

Yes you're paying for all of those things, but no other service in America is allowed to wait until after you've used their time to tell you exactly what their time costs, or to tell you how much time they're going to take, or to have a different nebulous formula for figuring out how much their time is worth depending on who is paying the bill. If you hire a lawyer he tells you his hourly rate in advance and then tells you how many hours he's going to bill you for before he starts doing something for you. For that matter they also need to tell you what, approximately, they're going to provide. If you hire a lawyer to help you with your divorce and he spends 15 minutes looking over your file and then says 'sorry, I don't do divorce law' you don't owe him anything. So why is it when this guy comes in for a screwed up ear and the doctor says 'sorry, we don't do that' you're allowed to charge him hundreds of dollars?

If you're paying out of pocket for a service you should have the right to say 'what can you do for me and how much will it cost?'. You shouldn't be on the line for any bill until you've heard the price you'll be paying, the service provided, and had the opportunity to walk away. No other business is allowed to charge you just because you walked in the door and asked those questions.

Also, btw, Emergency rooms are insanely overpriced. There is nothing about sitting on the ground floor of a hospital that makes a nurse checking you in and a doctor seeing you for less than a minute orders of magnitude more expensive as doing the same thing in an FP's office one floor up. It's just the hospital's way of gouging medicare and Medicaid to make up for all of the things they don't pay for on the other services.

 

[Poliscidoc]

Another useless trip to the ER, might have wanted to wait until morning and go see your GP.

 

[blp11]

Yes you're paying for all of those things, but no other service in America is allowed to wait until after you've used their time to tell you exactly what their time costs, or to tell you how much time they're going to take, or to have a different nebulous formula for figuring out how much their time is worth depending on who is paying the bill.

This. If there's anything that would turn me off to the medical profession, this would be it.

If the ER wants to discourage patients from coming in for trivial matters, they should let all those people with earaches know as they enter how much they will be charged and that they can get the same care for much less at a regular doctor, or even at urgent care. The way it's being run now seems almost purposefully deceptive to get more money.

That being said, straight up refusing to pay a bill may not have been the smartest option. Could you have talked/complained to the hospital instead?