At age 26, there’s a lot of cause for celebration in Daria’s life. She’s recently engaged, finishing a bachelor’s degree, and hopes to go to law school. And with the help of Dollar For, she recently kicked $6,200 in medical bills.
Daria has received treatment at the Mayo Clinic in Phoenix for two years. She has good health insurance through her full-time government job but the costs of many visits added up.
“The bills just kept piling up. I never thought too much about it until I was put on a payment plan and the payments were way too big,” she said.
Daria used up all her vacation and sick leave, plus some donated paid-time off from coworkers, as she continued to be treated for her medical condition.
Forced to take unpaid time off, her income dipped as her regular monthly expenses continued along with the medical bills. Soon, the clinic’s bill collection department began to call.
Daria’s social worker at the clinic referred her to the Expect Miracles Foundation, a program established to help young adult patients through major medical treatment.
The foundation’s financial assistance helped ease some of the burden, but it couldn’t help to completely forgive the medical debt. They put Daria in touch with Dollar For. She quickly completed our 3-minute questionnaire and found she was eligible for help.
“I would just struggle to call Mayo and say I need charity from you because I can’t afford to pay. I just didn’t know what to do and what they would need. Dollar For was great because everything was in one place,” Daria said.
Her social worker at Mayo Clinic now tells other patients about Dollar For’s completely free patient advocacy program.
“It would definitely take me a couple years to pay that off. Having those taken off is really just incredible,” Daria said.
With the hospital bills forgiven and a regular work schedule restored, Daria is free to continue pursuing her dreams. Time potentially spent navigating the hospital financial assistance process on her own is now put back where it belongs: wedding planning and law school studying.