Tony Messenger: Retired couple take a stand over $12 penalty on hospital bill

Sep. 26—HIGH RIDGE — Maria Smith is an old-school bill payer. She writes checks twice a month.

Smith, 78, and her husband, James, 70, are retired. They live on retirement income and Social Security. James worked at the old Chrysler plant in Fenton for 34 years. He was a union official. After he retired, he drove a bus for a while. Then in 2014, he had some medical issues.

That's what this column is about: hospital bills. Well, not just hospital bills, but all bills these days.

Whether it's the hospital, phone company or bank, there's always some fee tacked on that doesn't make sense, Maria says. It often involves encouraging people to pay their bills the way the company wants: online, with a credit card.

That's not how the Smiths do things. As a retired school secretary, Maria is incredibly organized. She knows how the hospital bill game works. First, you get the doctor's bill, then one from the anesthesiologist, and then one from the hospital. They try to get you to pay upfront, on a credit card. She refuses and waits for the bills to make their way through the insurance company. Eventually, she gets the bills that show what she actually owes.

And twice a month, after the various retirement deposits have cleared, she writes her checks to pay the bills. "We always pay our bills," she says proudly.

And so it was this time, after James' latest medical procedure. It was May 5 and she wrote three checks to the various providers. She showed me the register in her balanced and meticulously kept checkbook.

Not long after she paid, she received a note from the SSM Health system. The note said she owed an additional $12.07. That's because she didn't pay the bill "early" and the price included a "prompt pay discount." She didn't qualify for the discount, the letter said, so she owed more money.

She and James told their kids about the bill. They suggested the couple pay it. Maria said no. She's drawing a line in the sand.

On the day I visited, she had a notice from her cellphone company, AT&T. It's one of the few bills that she pays by credit card because she gets a $10 discount for automatic payment. Now, the company wants to switch it to her checking account. The Smiths are worried about identity theft, so they don't use their checking account online. Because she won't make the change, the discount is dropping from $10 to $5.

"There's so many things wrong with how the billing system works these days," Maria says. "They don't care. It's not just us. It's not just the older generation."

Indeed, the problem is getting attention from the White House and Congress. President Joe Biden earlier this year instructed the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to write a rule that would save up to $1 billion in late fees from banks and other companies that prey on consumers. He's also urged Congress to pass the "Junk Fee Prevention Act" to make it harder for companies to add unnecessary fees. Congress, meanwhile, is considering a series of bipartisan bills to bring more transparency to hospital billing.

For the Smiths, the situation is simple.

"You shouldn't be penalized if you can't pay online or instantly," Maria says. "We don't have money instantly. We're not part of the 10% on the top."

When she received the bill for $12.07, she tried unsuccessfully to get a live person on the phone to discuss it. Eventually, the bill was sent to a Massachusetts company to collect. She talked to them. She let them know she wasn't paying it. The hospital and its collection company have probably spent more than $12.07 trying to collect a bill that never should have been issued, the Smiths believe.

Maria could just write a check and be done with it. Instead, she's taking a stand.

"I refuse," she says. "I'm not going to pay it."

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