Entering the USA with Bills

oisin18

Hi,

Just wondering if anyone would have experience or know how to help. Going to the States, in particular San Francisco. I owe somewhere between 2-3k in hospital bills in the state of Nevada, from about 4 years ago. Left the country the next day and got a couple of letter at home in Ireland, but was a student so ignored them. Will it be an issue entering Cali, or is it just on a state by state basis?

cena

oisin18 wrote: »

Hi,

Just wondering if anyone would have experience or know how to help. Going to the States, in particular San Francisco. I owe somewhere between 2-3k in hospital bills in the state of Nevada, from about 4 years ago. Left the country the next day and got a couple of letter at home in Ireland, but was a student so ignored them. Will it be an issue entering Cali, or is it just on a state by state basis?

I wouldn't say you well be safe. immigration could have this info of none payment of bills.

oisin18

Cheers Cena. Is that a hunch or would you have any more background info? I'm not sure whether to risk it. And if they say no - what happens then?

cena

oisin18 wrote: »

Cheers Cena. Is that a hunch or would you have any more background info? I'm not sure whether to risk it. And if they say no - what happens then?

Just a hunch. I know the first time I went over I was stopped at immigration just cause someone had the same name as me and is wanted for question.

Have you booked flights. Why didn't you pay the bill? I presume you where on a j1. Wouldn't you insurance have covered it

iusedtoknow

Unless you have a warrant out for your arrest, you should be fine. Likewise, Nevada is a different state, and you did not commit a federal offense, so you probably should be OK entering...probably.

What will have happened with your bill is this

Treated -> sent bill to the address you provided -> sent another bill to the address you provided -> sent yet another bill to the address you provided.

Eventually, the hospital will have gotten sick of it and either written it off or sent it to collections
Collections would then have tried to get in contact with you, then tried again. If it was a huge bill and you were american, they would take it to court and get your salary garnished to a certain level

I'll be honest, 3k is NOTHING in US hospital bills (i imagine you got a plaster and saline drip for this) so I severely doubt that they will have gone to court to get a bench warrant out for you.

Look at the letters and call them, ask them what they still want. You can safely ignore it if you don't want to come back to US, as credit is not passed over and you are not going to extradited over 3k.

You could arrive and there be nothing to it, or you could arrive and be taken aside. Thems the breaks when you skip out on a bill. I have little or no pity for you.

ProudDUB

oisin18 wrote: »

Hi,

Just wondering if anyone would have experience or know how to help. Going to the States, in particular San Francisco. I owe somewhere between 2-3k in hospital bills in the state of Nevada, from about 4 years ago. Left the country the next day and got a couple of letter at home in Ireland, but was a student so ignored them. Will it be an issue entering Cali, or is it just on a state by state basis?

For a debt that small, odds are you'll be fine. The hospital probably sold the debt on to a collection agency. If the debt was a lot more, the collection agency would try to take you to court and get a court order against you. If you don't cough up the monies that the court order told you to pay, a bench warrant is issued for your arrest. Then when you then come in contact with US law enforcement (at the border) the warrant pops up and you are either arrested, or denied entry.

That is the worst case scenario. However, the odds are slim that the debt collection agency, or the hospitals lawyers would be willing to go to all that trouble and expense to pursue someone does not even live in the US anymore. The expense involved would be more than the debt they are trying to collect. As they can't really threaten you with ruining your US credit rating, to get you to cough up, you have probably been in a Case Closed bin for a very long time.

That is still just a "probably" though. There is no way to know for sure that the debt will not affect on this trip or others, unless you pay it off once and for all.

jaymcg91

What irresponsible, reckless behavior. Non payment of bills causes expenses to go up for everybody.

Why not pay it off now and be done with it.

Dave1442397

If you didn't have a Social Security number when you were at the hospital, I doubt that debt will ever surface again.

$3k is nothing to a hospital. Typically, they bill the amount they would like to get, then the insurance companies give them what they think the service was worth.

ProudDUB

Dave1442397 wrote: »

If you didn't have a Social Security number when you were at the hospital, I doubt that debt will ever surface again.

That is what I would have said too, but for the fact that the hospital has his Irish address and sent him bills there. So they know his name, his date of birth and his address. US border police also have his name, his date of birth and his Irish address, as the OP would have given them when he applied for his ESTA. If there was an arrest warrant out for him, it wouldn't take them long to connect the connect the dots & put two and two together.

As I said before, I don't think that any of that will happen, as the debt is so small. But it is extremely naive to think that US authorities have no way of keeping track of what visitors get up to, just because they don't have a social security number.

iusedtoknow

Dave1442397 wrote: »

If you didn't have a Social Security number when you were at the hospital, I doubt that debt will ever surface again.

$3k is nothing to a hospital. Typically, they bill the amount they would like to get, then the insurance companies give them what they think the service was worth.

You're right on this - just asked the wife to check at their hospital

$3k is what they would bill and insurance company of which insurance would pay depending on the circumstances
if the patient didn't have health insurance they would probably bill 1600
if they fought it, they'd slash it to 900 and send it to collections who in the end would settle for 500

However...if someone skips off, they would bill the full amount and then write it off after 6 months but report a default to credit agencies

This is a university teaching hospital in a city. A small town hospital in Nevada may have different policies

The other thing is...she checked her ER what would cost 3k. A saline drip in the waiting room and patch up work for someone that had a few too many.

silja

The only issue I could see if if you do anything that may cause a credit check- try to rent a car or holiday home sort of thing, you may get denied due to bad credit.

iusedtoknow

silja wrote: »

The only issue I could see if if you do anything that may cause a credit check- try to rent a car or holiday home sort of thing, you may get denied due to bad credit.

And that won't really be an issue as credit checks are only performed on US cards/residents and not someone arriving to the hertz desk with an irish license and passport

Dave1442397

iusedtoknow wrote: »

And that won't really be an issue as credit checks are only performed on US cards/residents and not someone arriving to the hertz desk with an irish license and passport

Exactly, and that's why I said not having an SSN would make the whole issue moot. The chances that the hospital even bothered doing more than writing a letter to a foreign visitor are slim to none.

I know it's not the same amount, but I got a letter from Ireland looking for payment of a speeding ticket. I forget how much it was, but I ignored it and have never been bothered about it on subsequent trips to Ireland.