Medical Bills of Tourist hospitalization and liability of inviting child (PR)

[Carmageddon]

Hello, we have a person in our community who is scared with almost 40K bills for their father' hospitalization.

In short:

1. They applied for a Visitor's visa, they added a letter of support pledging to take on all expenses.
2. The visiting parent had medical insurance
3. 2 days before flight back home, parent became ill with bad cough and fever
4. After several walk-in clinic visits, was sent to hospital for a week with pneumonia and fluid in his lungs.
5. Flight tickets cancelled, tried to reschedule - air canada refused to fly back
6. Doctors insisted to send him back because insurance had ended and he need to continue his treatment at home
   
7. Eventually flights was secured, with Portable Oxygen concentrator to be purchased

So, they are now leftt with 38K bills total.
One paralegal says that they are liable for the bill, and can be come after, but I remember reading once, that if the letter is NOT notarized, they are not liable but I cant find where I read that, currently...

Given the unique situation here, where insurance expired 2 days after hospitalization, would they be liable in any way for the parent's medical bills? I mean, even if the support letter is legally binding, a reasonable person can not expect such an edge situation where insurance would not apply!


Any advice, references in this case would be appreciated!
Thanks.

 

[scylla]

Hello, we have a person in our community who is scared with almost 40K bills for their father' hospitalization.

In short:

1. They applied for a Visitor's visa, they added a letter of support pledging to take on all expenses.
2. The visiting parent had medical insurance
3. 2 days before flight back home, parent became ill with bad cough and fever
4. After several walk-in clinic visits, was sent to hospital for a week with pneumonia and fluid in his lungs.
5. Flight tickets cancelled, tried to reschedule - air canada refused to fly back
6. Doctors insisted to send him back because insurance had ended and he need to continue his treatment at home
   
7. Eventually flights was secured, with Portable Oxygen concentrator to be purchased

So, they are now leftt with 38K bills total.
One paralegal says that they are liable for the bill, and can be come after, but I remember reading once, that if the letter is NOT notarized, they are not liable but I cant find where I read that, currently...

Given the unique situation here, where insurance expired 2 days after hospitalization, would they be liable in any way for the parent's medical bills? I mean, even if the support letter is legally binding, a reasonable person can not expect such an edge situation where insurance would not apply!


Any advice, references in this case would be appreciated!
Thanks.

They need to speak with an actual lawyer rather than a paralegal. Probably the best option is to negotiate with the hospital to get the amount of the bill lowered and then to agree to a payment plan. Yes - we have seen cases here where children were held responsible for their visiting parent's medical bills regardless of what was in the visa application.

Hopefully the parent is doing OK now. The children should assume it won't be possible to bring this parent to Canada on a visitor visa in the future.

 

[Carmageddon]

Thank you Scylla, he is recovering back home now, its just the fallout they are trying to handle now..
Do you know anything about negotiating with the hospital in Canada? I cant find any information on that.. all info comes up about the USA.

 

[zardoz]

https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/services/visit-canada/letter-invitation.html

Information for the person writing the letter of invitation
Writing a letter of invitation does not mean you are legally responsible for the visitor once he or she gets to Canada. You should still write the letter in good faith. You must tell the truth and plan to keep the promises you make in the letter.

Send your letter (notarized, if the visa office asks for that) to the person you are inviting to Canada. The person must then send this letter to the Canadian embassy or consulate outside of Canada when he or she applies for a temporary resident visa.

A lot will depend on the verbal/written commitments made by the "inviter" to the hospital, in order for treatment to be made available.

 

[scylla]

Thank you Scylla, he is recovering back home now, its just the fallout they are trying to handle now..
Do you know anything about negotiating with the hospital in Canada? I cant find any information on that.. all info comes up about the USA.

As far as I know, you contact the hospital billing department and ask to speak with the person in charge. I would aim to try to cut the bill by half and reduce to around $20K owed.

 

[Carmageddon]

https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/services/visit-canada/letter-invitation.html

Information for the person writing the letter of invitation
Writing a letter of invitation does not mean you are legally responsible for the visitor once he or she gets to Canada. You should still write the letter in good faith. You must tell the truth and plan to keep the promises you make in the letter.

Send your letter (notarized, if the visa office asks for that) to the person you are inviting to Canada. The person must then send this letter to the Canadian embassy or consulate outside of Canada when he or she applies for a temporary resident visa.

A lot will depend on the verbal/written commitments made by the "inviter" to the hospital, in order for treatment to be made available.

Do you have a reference for that? When you attach letter of financial support to the application?

 

[canuck_in_uk]

Hello, we have a person in our community who is scared with almost 40K bills for their father' hospitalization.

In short:

1. They applied for a Visitor's visa, they added a letter of support pledging to take on all expenses.
2. The visiting parent had medical insurance
3. 2 days before flight back home, parent became ill with bad cough and fever
4. After several walk-in clinic visits, was sent to hospital for a week with pneumonia and fluid in his lungs.
5. Flight tickets cancelled, tried to reschedule - air canada refused to fly back
6. Doctors insisted to send him back because insurance had ended and he need to continue his treatment at home
   
7. Eventually flights was secured, with Portable Oxygen concentrator to be purchased

So, they are now leftt with 38K bills total.
One paralegal says that they are liable for the bill, and can be come after, but I remember reading once, that if the letter is NOT notarized, they are not liable but I cant find where I read that, currently...

Given the unique situation here, where insurance expired 2 days after hospitalization, would they be liable in any way for the parent's medical bills? I mean, even if the support letter is legally binding, a reasonable person can not expect such an edge situation where insurance would not apply!


Any advice, references in this case would be appreciated!
Thanks.

Regardless of whether there is legal liability, the father's medical bills are NOT the responsibility of Canadian taxpayers, so they need to step up and pay.

 

[Carmageddon]

https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/services/visit-canada/letter-invitation.html

Information for the person writing the letter of invitation
Writing a letter of invitation does not mean you are legally responsible for the visitor once he or she gets to Canada. You should still write the letter in good faith. You must tell the truth and plan to keep the promises you make in the letter.

Send your letter (notarized, if the visa office asks for that) to the person you are inviting to Canada. The person must then send this letter to the Canadian embassy or consulate outside of Canada when he or she applies for a temporary resident visa.

A lot will depend on the verbal/written commitments made by the "inviter" to the hospital, in order for treatment to be made available.

I apologize, I was replying in a rush and missed the reference link!
I now have reviewed and re-read this page again.
It is talking about "legally responsible", I am not sure, is that the same as "financially responsible", though?

 

[Bs65]

So did you contact the insurance company at the time of hospitisation for authority given some policies I have seen cover a traveller if they fall ill during the validity of the policy even if they are hospitilised beyond the expiry date given nobody can predict how long they might be ill .

Then again sometimes guess you get what you pay for in terms of insurance but a policy which in effect says you can be ill upto an end date but after that tough you are on your own is not a good deal,

The main point is that most insurance companies expect to be contacted for treatment authorisation so hopefully that was done otherwise regardless policy end date truly are on your own .

 

[canuck78]

When the parent arrived at the hospital the child likely signed a document agreeing to pay for services if they were not covered by insurance. This is typical when someone arrives without insurance. I don’t think the bill will be able the be reduced by half. Canadian bills aren’t inflated like US bills but a payment plan is usually offered. There are always risks when having family members. Luckily it sounds like 2 days of hospital stay will be covered but the Canadian tax payers shouldn’t be responsible for the parents stay in hospital. If you can’t afford something like this people need to be careful having family members stay with them especially elderly parents. Disease doesn’t occur on a timeframe.

 

[Carmageddon]

When the parent arrived at the hospital the child likely signed a document agreeing to pay for services if they were not covered by insurance. This is typical when someone arrives without insurance.

Really? I'll ask them.. Why would a person sign this? They cant refuse emergency treatment anyway.. so why sign a really legally binding document?

 

[canuck78]

Really? I'll ask them.. Why would a person sign this? They cant refuse emergency treatment anyway.. so why sign a really legally binding document?

ERs won’t deny lifesaving treatment but once they are out of danger of death or even during registration when it becomes clear that the patient doesn’t have a Canadian health care the hospital will ask who will responsible for paying for treatment. Some will be volunteer knowing they will coordinate with the insurance company. They won’t interrupt CPR and ask who they are going to pay but there is an effort to secure promise of payment when things settle down. Honestly when family members are sick most are more concerned about their family member and are less concerned about the cost. At that point most don’t have the option of not getting care especially if their family member is too sick to return home to get treatment.

We pay taxes to get healthcare only fair that others pay for their care in Canada as well. And no, their children paying taxes doesn’t cover their medical care.

 

[Bs65]

Still no answer to the question did they even contact the insurance company before hospital treatment given most policies I have ever seen insist they are contacted before treatment for authorisation else they will likely not even pay for the 2 days. Obviously there are likely exceptions for actual ER emergencies when time is critical but reading the OP seems was not that much of a rush to not contact the company.

 

[scylla]

Really? I'll ask them.. Why would a person sign this? They cant refuse emergency treatment anyway.. so why sign a really legally binding document?

It's often part of the admission paperwork. They may not have heard or understood what they were signing in the rush to get treatment.