One reality of being widowed - paying medical bills

I’ve shared a lot about being a caregiver for a husband who had early onset Alzheimer’s disease. During the three and a half years after he was diagnosed, I was diligent about keeping records. I had always been the money manager in our marriage. But, I didn’t know about my husband’s retirement options from his past job. I had to look that up and get access so I could make decisions, as the POA.

My husband’s term life policy had expired and he hadn’t gotten another, so I was left with all the financial responsibilities after his passing, including the medical bills from the last month of his life. I paid each one as they came in. What I didn’t know, was that I would keep getting new bills, long after his passing. For instance, two years after his death, when I was sure I had finally taken care of all the financials that one has to take care of after the passing of a spouse, I got a new bill from the hospital for $1948.00. I called and talked to a financial accounts person and she told me, they had waited to send the bill until they knew if his insurance was going to pay.

Guess what the time limit was for insurance to pay? Two years. I won’t waste your time or mine to discuss how scammy medical billing is. Or how I knew that they had waited on purpose.

The purpose of this post is to possibly help someone else in my situation. Call the hospital and make sure you have every single bill and that they aren’t holding onto any of them to mail out for a new deductible year. They aren’t going to forget to send a bill, but they will wait. And it’s no fun after two years, when you might be finally feeling like you are healing and recovering and growing through the grief, to get large medical bills that you alone are responsible for.

There were a lot of other financial things that came my way after my husband passed that I had been too tired and busy while being a caregiver to give much thought to. But, that’s why I tell everyone to make sure you have a trusted financial advisor. Talk to a grief counselor or someone else who has lost a spouse. For instance, you will have to file your spouse’s last tax return. Have you thought about what that might mean for your own tax return? I have not kept a good record of all the things I’ve had to file or pay since my husband’s passing after his struggle with young Alzheimer’s disease. I just wanted to share this so you ask yourself all the questions and get all the records you can, so you don’t worry about being surprised by unknown bills and payments.

Sincerely,

Anne