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I advise paying off the bills to avoid future trouble. I-134 means general sponsorship and does not mean it needs to list every single type of expense that the visitor may incur. For next visit, I would also advise you to purchase comprehensive coverage plan from US company so that you can get covered completely. Most plans in India are fixed coverage plans above age 55 and that is why they are paying little. Read about different types of insurance plans at visitors insurance types

I do appreciate your response. On this forum, people have come across this situation, but no one has added any aftermath about issues from collection or so. Are you aware of such cases where collection got after the sponserer based on I-134. I do keep getting bills from different medical groups, as they contract for the hospital, and am not sure when will that stop. What is the practical way out based on your experience. Hospital, and docs too want to make profit out of money, so how to get down to reasonable level. The bills from these small groups is trickling around 2 -3 K but there are multiple such groups gettign total amount high. So, each group feels the amount too small to not to offer any disccount. Regards.

There is no magical way to solve this. You will have to work it out with the hospitals and doctors and do whatever best you can do. Unfortunately, all the information I have is what is posted by people like you. People post questions and look for suggestions because they need help. However, once they figure it out, they don't care any more because they are all set and most don't bother to report back. Therefore, you don't get the complete picture just by reading the forums.

I can tell you that providers are continuously finding new ways to get their money no matter what. I will narrate my recent experience. I have a health insurance (Aetna PPO) through my employer that does not having pre-existing conditions clause or anything like that, just like most working people have here in the US. I went to the doctor yesterday for my illness. I was a new patient and I was asked to fill the new patient form. It asked for the social security number. I left it blank intentionally. The receptionist asked to fill indicating that it is a required information. I argued that social security number is for my retirement purposes and it has nothing to do with my Dr. visit. She replied that if I don't want to provide SSN, I will have to pay all the money upfront and file claim with the insurance company. She argued that if the insurance company does not pay and if the patient does not pay, they have to send to the collection agencies. I had no choice other than to put my social security number. Otherwise, I would have to run around taking the Dr. appts and the next Dr. may do the same, who knows. I have myself experienced this several times from different providers. Now, let's come back to the visitors insurance. Visitors don't have social security number. In this case, that same provider I visited would either ask for the relative's social security number (that is, your SSN if you took your mother's to the Dr) or ask you to pay everything upfront, even though you might have PPO insurance and they would otherwise bill the insurance company directly. There is nothing you can do in such scenarios. You simply don't have better choice.

Have you had any updates on the situation of your parents pending medical bills? Did you finally have to pay? Would really like to understand how you resolved it finally?