Name: WRAL 5 On Your Side helps woman pay down medical debt
Uploaded: 2022-08-15T18:28:59-0400
Duration: 141951
Description: WRAL Five on Your Side reached out to Cape Fear Valley Health and explained that Cecelia Cox had been making regular payments. Cape Fear Valley Health responded and told WRAL Five on Your Side that it would take the debt back.

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WRAL Five on Your Side reached out to Cape Fear Valley Health and explained that Cecelia Cox had been making regular payments. Cape Fear Valley Health responded and told WRAL Five on Your Side that it would take the debt back.

UNFAIRLY GIVEN TO A COLLECTIONS >> DO YOU HAVE AN UNPAID MEDICAL BILL AT HOME? YOU ARE FAR FROM ALONE. ONE IN 10 ADULTS HAVE MEDICAL DEBT. ONE FAYETTEVILLE WOMAN TOLD 5 ON YOUR SIDE SHE WAS STAYING ON TOP OF HER PAYMENTS TO CAPE FEAR VALLEY HEALTH. ONLY TO FIND OUT THAT A COLLECTION AGENCY HAD TAKEN OVER HER DEBT. SO SHE CALLED KEELEY WHO GOT THAT DEBT BACK. >> CECELIA EMAILED ME EXPLAINING SHE HAD A MEDICAL PROCEDURE DONE LAST SUMMER. IT SET HER BACK. THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS, BUT SHE WAS DETERMINED TO PAY IT SHE BEGAN MAKING MONTHLY PAYMENTS FROM OCTOBER 2021. THROUGH MARCH 2022, BUT IN LATE MARCH, SHE EXPLAINED SHE RECEIVED A COLLECTION DEBT NOTICE FROM PATIENT ACCOUNTS BUREAU FOR THE REMAINING BALANCE OF $1443. WAS HEARTBROKEN AND SCARED WRITING I HAVE OR HAD EXCELLENT CREDIT BEFORE THIS. ADDING, QUOTE, I FEEL LIKE THEY COULD HAVE AT LEAST CALLED AND SPOKEN WITH ME BEFORE SENDING MY DEBT TO COLLECTIONS. I GOT INVOLVED IN CALLED THE SPOKESPERSON WITH CAPE FEAR VALLEY HEALTH AND SENT THEM THE COMPLAINT A LITTLE WHILE LATER. UPDATED ME EXPLAINING THAT CAPE FEAR VALLEY HEALTH TOOK HER DEBT BACK, SET HER UP WITH A PAYMENT PLAN AND NOT $200 OFF HER BILL WRITING, THANK YOU SO MUCH. HERE'S WHAT HAPPENED IN MOST CASES, HOSPITALS DON'T SELL DEBT, BUT THEY DO ASK COLLECTION AGENCIES TO HELP GET THEM THEIR MONEY. IN THIS CASE, THE HOSPITAL WAS ABLE TO TAKE THE DEBT BACK BECAUSE THEY HAD SOLD IT. NOW WE KNOW MEDICAL DEBT IS A BIG PROBLEM FOR A LOT OF PEOPLE RIGHT NOW. SO WE SPOKE WITH THE ADVOCACY EXPERTS AT OUR IP MEDICAL DEBT ABOUT WHAT YOU SHOULD DO RIGHT NOW. IF YOU'RE IN THE SITUATION, YOU KNOW, DON'T MAKE TOO MUCH MIGHT APPLY. AND ACTUALLY STORE ALL EXPENSES IN YOUR LIFE. BUT THE LONGER THE STUDENT LOAN DEBT, YOU'RE TAKING CARE OF PARENT, THAT CHILD SPECIAL NEEDS SHARON INFORMATION AND WANT TO SEE HOW FAR I MEAN, YOU KNOW, YES, SOMEBODY WENT TO THE NEWS. I'M SURE THAT HELPS. >> RIGHT TO SEAL THE HOSPITAL WAS NAMES FROM THE CENTER WEBSITE. >> KEELY ARTHUR, 5 ON YOUR SIDE. AND CAPE FEAR VALLEY HEALTH TOLD KELLY THAT THEY ARE USING THE SITUATION TO. WE EXAMINED THE AUTOMATED PART OF THESE BILLING PROCESSES TO SEE IF IMPROVEMENTS CAN BE MADE

Keely Arthur

Richard Adkins

Pritchard Strong

Ashley Talley

Mark Bergin

WRAL 5 On Your Side helps woman pay down medical debt

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Get the latest WRAL WeatherCenter Forecast whenever you need it, including the DUALDoppler5000 and the 7-Day Forecast.

I'm meteorologist Elizabeth Gardner in the weather center tracking a system that's down along the Gulf coast. Right now. There is a severe thunderstorm watch as you can see in the orange shaded area, a lot of thunderstorms. So we've had severe thunderstorm warnings and tornado warnings early this morning. With this, you see the big h sitting over North Carolina, it's slipping out to sea. That's the high pressure system that brought us some beautiful weather over the weekend and it's hanging on for today. We'll gradually start to see the clouds though, filling in and potentially a few isolated showers this evening, definitely seeing some rain overnight. And early tomorrow morning, there's 6 a.m. with some scattered rain and potentially some thunderstorms by nine or 10 o'clock in the morning. And you could see that continues through lunch time and into maybe the middle uh part of the afternoon and then overnight more showers and a chance of thunderstorms again on Wednesday. So we move into that wetter pattern and we'll see it at least two days in a row for Tuesday and Wednesday. This is Tuesday's severe weather threat to parts of Moore County, all of hope County, parts of Cumberland and Sampson County, uh, damaging wind would be the biggest threat that we would see out of those storms. And same thing again on Wednesday, just a slightly different area of coverage along the I 95 corridor with wind damage being the biggest threat Wednesday. Nice out there. So far today, we are seeing some hyen cloud cover beginning to build in and it'll be mostly cloudy by this afternoon, mid afternoon, looking at temperatures climbing into the low eighties and by lunchtime, 75. So it should be a nice lunch hour to spend outside if you have that opportunity. 81 in Raleigh, 80 in Durham, 83 in Fayetteville with increasing clouds. And this evening, we may see a few scattered showers. It was a cool weekend. Temperatures were below normal. In most places, you can see that blue shaded area that's below normal and it starts to creep up by the end of the week, we're not looking at any intense, you know, we've seen a number of days in the nineties already. This season, we're not likely to see that this week are muggy meters climbing though. It feels good. It felt great over the weekend still feels good this morning, but it's bouncing back up to steamy to tropical all the way through the weekend as we move into a wetter pattern.

WRAL WeatherCenter Forecast

Karen Brinson Bell, executive director of the State Board of Elections, explains preparations for North Carolina's second primary, a runoff with four races on the ballot. Polls will be open Tuesday from 6:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m.

I'm Karen Brinson Bell, executive director of the State board of Elections. I'm here with Paul Cox, our general counsel to the state board. Thank you to all the members of the press in attendance for helping us to get accurate information to the public. Tomorrow. Tuesday, May 14th is the second primary election day in North Carolina. There are two statewide Republican second primaries on the ballot tomorrow. State Auditor and Lieutenant governor to be eligible to vote in those contests. You must either be a registered Republican or an unaffiliated voter who either did not vote in the March 5th primary election or voted the Republican ballot in the primary. The winners of these contests will be the Republican nominees in the November general election. Also on ballots in some locations. Tomorrow are a Republican second primary in the 13th congressional district as well as local contests in Gaston and Orange counties. Tomorrow is the last opportunity for registered and eligible voters to cast their ballot in this election election day. Polling places will be open statewide from 6:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. Voters should go to their assigned voting location. You can find your assigned voting location and your sample ballot in the voter search tool. On the state board's website N CS ve.gov, some election day voting sites have been consolidated for the second primary. So please make sure to confirm the location of your election day poll in place through the voter search tool. Another important reminder, voters will be asked to show a photo ID. When they check in to vote, most voters will simply show their driver's license but there are many other acceptable forms of photo id for more information including the full list of acceptable I DS visit, bring it nc.gov. If a voter cannot show a photo ID, they can still vote by filling out an ID exception form and voting a provisional ballot. Finally, a crucial reminder to absentee voters. If you still want to vote your absentee ballot, your only option is to drop off your ballot at your county board of elections office by 7:30 p.m. Tomorrow. Today is too late to put that ballot in the mail. It must arrive at your county board of elections office by 7:30 p.m. tomorrow. As an alternative, you can still, you can simply discard your absentee ballot and vote in person at your assigned voting location tomorrow. So how will results get reported? Unofficial election results will be posted as they come in tomorrow night on the state Board's elections, dashboard results dashboard as always just remember, elections are not over on election night during the 10 day canvas period after election day, bipartisan county boards of elections in all 100 counties count the remaining absentee ballots, research and count provisional ballots, audit the results and conduct any necessary recount. For example, every county conducts a sample hand count of ballots in randomly selected election day precincts, early voting sites or the absentee ballots cast in the county. Even during second primaries, we do this with every election. This process is to confirm results tabulated by our certified and tested voting equipment. Counties must conduct these hand counts in public. Finally, I just want to tell voters all voters in North Carolina who are eligible to vote in the Republican second primary that there is still time to make your voice heard all too often. We see low turnout in second primary elections. Yet votes cast in these contests will decide the nominees of the Republican party for the general election in these particular contests. So get out there and vote. And with that, I will take your questions, please put your name and media organization in the chat if you wish to ask a question. All righty. Uh looks like Michael Highland was first, Michael, go ahead and unmute. And are you able to hear me? Ok, I can hear you. Ok, great. Um My first question related to what you just said at the end about the um history of the low turnout in these um second primaries. Um What if anything do you think the state could do, are there any steps you think could be taken to help improve turnout in these, uh, second primaries if we're gonna continue to have them? I don't tend to weigh in on that. Um, but I'm happy to talk to legislators. It did actually come up um, briefly in a question from a legislator, uh, during the joint elections committee meeting recently and there are options. Um, we have adjusted this law in the past. Um And I think, you know, that's something that legislators can consider. Um And, and determine whether a second primary method is the right path for North Carolinians or not. Um And then are there any um recommendations for counties who may be concerned about the cost of doing this with seeing so few people turn out any other things that maybe could be done to help with that? Uh The, the cost of elections by our state law is the responsibility of the counties. Um You know, that might be something else. Uh There's different methods of who pays for primaries and second primaries and runoffs in other states. So that would be something we need to look at from a legislative standpoint and happy to discuss with uh our lawmakers on how those methods and, and processes work in other states. Um So, yeah, but at this point, you know what we do, whether it's a second primary or a general election, whatever the case, we prepare for 100% turnout and um and hope that we will see that kind of turnout, whether it's a second primary or a presidential general election. Laura Leslie. Uh You should be unmuted. Can you hear me? Ok. Hi Laura. Hey. Um, so couple questions. Number one, what was our turnout for the prime for the uh first primary? Uh We were at about 24% if I remember correctly. What do we average for a second primary? Uh, second primary or of far too often in single digits? It does certainly depend on what might be happening in a local contest. Like we've got going on in Orange and Gaston counties or, uh, we'll probably see a higher turnout in the counties with the 13th congressional district. Um, but overall statewide, we're at about 0.7% turnout for those voters who are eligible, which is about, uh, uh, not quite 5 million eligible voters considering the unaffiliated and the Republican, uh, voters, you're saying so far so far? That's right. Hopefully that goes up tomorrow. We don't see people turn out. All right. Um, ok. So another question, um, what do people do if they are one of those folks who has gotten delayed getting their driver's license because of the glitch that's happening at the DMV. So, say you've got a paper driver's license. How do you vote? There's actually an exception for that on the exception form. So we could, um, help them that way or potentially they may have another acceptable form of ID. Um, you know, there are many student I DS that are acceptable public, uh, employee I DS that are permitted tribal veteran I DS passports. Um, so there are options and that's why we definitely encourage voters to look at our website. And the list of I DS that are acceptable, uh, bring it nc.gov is the site for that. And again, if it's this particular case where they have not gotten their ID from the DMV, at this point in time, that is a, uh, an exception on the exception form as well. Great. Thank you. Um, and just real quickly, do we know that is Jennifer Moore withdrawn from the primary in Orange County? Um, she's actually uh past the point to withdrawal, um, but she has resigned. So, uh, we have a situation where she will appear on the ballot. The ballots had already gone out. Um Similarly, we have an indication from the 13th congressional district that the, one of the candidates does not, you know, intend to continue. Um, but the ballots had already gone out in both of these situations. So, um, that, that process will, you know, continue, those votes will be counted. Um If, if those individuals um happen to be the top vote getters, then we'll address that with them and, and how they choose to continue. So there's nothing but there's nothing like if you go to an election site, right? You go to, to tomorrow on election day, there's no signs or anything that are telling you that that one of these people is no longer running. That's correct. They have announced that, but they, um, they, they could not withdraw at the point when they made that announcement, Paul, is there anything from a legal standpoint? You want to add in on that? No, I think you said it correctly. I mean, at this point, um, our law requires that the election continue as is and that the results be declared. Uh And because the, the Orange County contest is not a primary contest, it's like the actual election, the, the, the run off to determine who's going to take office. So whoever is the highest vote earner in that runoff contest will be declared the new, um, uh person who's eligible to assume office for that Board of Education seat in Orange County. And then it'd be up to that person whether to assume that office just like it is for anyone who's elected. And if they don't, then it'd be up to the Board of Education to um, uh fill that vacancy if, if no one takes office once they're elected. Thank you. Uh Gary Robertson should be able to unmute and ask your question. I can hear you. Gary, let's, it's a little static. Let's see. OK. I wanted to ask, I was intrigued by the idea that there are some counties where precincts have been consolidated for the second primary. How, how is that accomplished? And is that a potential solution for counties to deal with second runoff expenses in the future? It's actually a, a practice that in my 18 years of working in elections administration, uh that we've seen this practice has gone on um for some time when we have second primaries where we anticipate a lower turnout or even in municipal elections, when there are fewer eligible voters, we can consolidate. Um There's a provision within the law about, you know, uh the, the locations being adjacent, the precincts being adjacent to each other, so that we're not um you know, creating a burden for someone to have to travel across the county. It's not that level of consolidation, but nearby precincts can be consolidated. Um The boards had to take action on that and notice to the voters that were affected. Um So it, it's, it's something that's um we've approved many weeks ago actually, I guess you could say um almost months ago, um as the, they rolled into the second primary to be prepared. And um and, and it does help to reduce costs. We still um are able to uh identify uh the ballots cast by precinct um because we still, the voters are still registered with the precinct that they um you know, their boundaries uh where they belong. Um But we are able to use a uh a consolidated polling site Thank you. All right. I see a couple of hands raised. Um, I'm gonna get to you all. First, Lisa Worf. Do you have a question? How many fewer, uh, polling sites are you expecting in the second primary compared to the, the first one?

NC votes Tuesday. Watch live update on your ballot, what to bring

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Nightly N.C. Education Lottery drawings during the 11 p.m. News.

Good evening, Darren vaught here with tonight's drawings for Sunday. May 12th, 2024. Let's get started as always with Carolina pick three where the first winning number is nine. The second is one and the third is five and our pick three. Fireball number is three. Joining me for tonight's drawing is our auditor from mcconnell and Jones L LP. We move along to Carolina pick four. The first pick four, number is six. The second is five. The third, also five in the fourth is four. And our pick four. Fireball number tonight is, is, where is it there? It is. It's seven turning now to the Carolina cash five. If no one wins the top prize tonight, tomorrow's top prize is estimated at $997,000. It's getting up there. Good luck. The first cash five is 28. The second is 32 the 3rd 26. The 4th 10 in the fifth and final number tonight is a 13 over the past 16 years. The lottery has contributed over $10 billion to education. Thanks for playing

Evening Pick 3 Pick 4 and Cash 5

Daytime Pick 3 and Pick 4 drawings are held at 3 p.m. daily. They can be seen as live or on-demand video.

Good afternoon. I'm back. Global. Welcome to this afternoon's drawings for Sunday. May 1220 24. Let's get started with Carolina pick three. The first pick three number is five. The second is three. The third is two and our pick three fireball number is nine. Joining me for this drawing is our auditor for the Connell and Jones L LP. Now move on to Carolina pick for the first four. Number is one. The second is three. The third is zero. The fourth is five and our pick four. Fireball number is seven. The North Carolina education lottery has contributed over $10 billion to education. Thanks for your support and thanks for playing.

Daytime Pick 3 and Pick 4 Drawing

On Sunday morning Duke University will award nearly 7,000 graduates during its annual commencement ceremony. Legendary comedian Jerry Seinfeld, father of a current Duke student, will be the commencement speaker. 

Comedian Jerry Seinfeld shares his keys to life with Duke grads

Yeah, welcome to Duke University's 2024 commencement ceremony. Please direct your attention to the end of the field and welcome the Duke University class of 2024. Now entering the stadium and throughout the processional march are the candidates for degrees from Trinity College of Arts and Sciences entering. Now are the candidates from the Pratt School of Engineering? Next, please welcome the candidates from the Sanford School of Public Policy. Now, the candidates from the Nicholas School of the Environment currently entering the stadium are the candidates from the Fuqua School of Business entering. Now are the candidates from the School of Nursing? Welcome the candidates from the Divinity School currently entering are the candidates from the School of law. Please welcome the candidates from the School of Medicine. Now, entering are the candidates from the graduate school.

WRAL 5 On Your Side helps woman pay down medical debt

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WRAL 5 On Your Side helps woman pay down medical debt

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