There is nothing quite as devastating as being made the victim of a catastrophic accident that causes you to incur serious, life-altering, or life-threatening injuries. Or, receiving a medical diagnosis for a serious, life-altering, or life-threatening illness. In either event, you may want to undergo every medical treatment possible to help you reach a partial or, hopefully, full recovery. But the bills for these medical treatments may pile on rapidly, to the point where you begin questioning how you will ever be able to pay them off. You may even be in such a desperate financial state that you consider bankruptcy. Follow along to find out how your bankruptcy proceedings may handle your medical debt and how a proficient Rockland County bankruptcy attorney at The Law Offices of Allen A. Kolber, Esq. can help you explore all possible outlets for financial relief.
How does the New York State bankruptcy court handle medical debt?
The New York State bankruptcy court will treat your medical debt as a nonpriority, unsecured debt. This is to say that, upon filing Chapter 7 bankruptcy, the court may discharge all your medical bills. Or, upon filing Chapter 13 bankruptcy, the court may help you get rid of as many of your medical bills as possible, all while giving you more time to repay the rest through the finalized repayment plan.
But say, for instance, you paid all your medical bills via credit cards. In this case, it is worth mentioning that the court also handles your credit card debt as a nonpriority, unsecured debt. In other words, the court may take the same approach for your credit card debt as your medical debt in your Chapter 7 or 13 bankruptcy.
How can I go about alternative relief options for my medical debt?
You may be wary of the long-term consequences following a Chapter 7 or 13 bankruptcy filing. To name a couple, you may have newfound difficulty obtaining personal loans or getting approved for credit cards. With this, you may question whether bankruptcy is too drastic of a measure for handling your medical debt.
This is why the New York State bankruptcy court has you attend a credit counseling session first. Here, a counselor may suggest alternative options that offer the same financial relief for your medical debt. For example, they may take a deep dive into your insurance plan and see if you can get more coverage in any way. They may even look into your Medicaid and Medicare options if you are qualified. What’s more, they may brief you on your rights per the Affordable Care Act.
The bottom line is that, when in doubt, someone at The Law Offices of Allen A. Kolber, Esq. is willing to look into your case. So please retain the services of a talented Rockland County bankruptcy attorney today.
