Time's running out for bankruptcy

[grugan02]

What is the name of your state?NY

Here's my situation:
Last month, I was involuntarily admitted to Columbia-Presby where I stayed for 10 days. Won't get into details but I couldn't leave and pleaded with them to release me as I had no insurance. They didn't seem to care much about that but did tell me they would apply for medicaid for me. Well, while I am out of work, I did collect UI of @$1200/month, which puts me well over the income limit. So, inevitably I'll be presented with a 30k bill that nobody could afford to pay.
I understand that bankruptcy laws change early october. I may not know the status of my medicaid application until late sept so I'm like totally unsure about how to handle this. I do know that there's NO WAY I'll ever be able to pay this crazy bill so if medicaid doesn't cover me, I'm sunk.
My question is, should i have to wait on medicaid until late september, will the week or so i have left to file bankruptcy be enough or will it be too late?
What are my options? Does anyone have any suggestions?

[bigun]

You have until 10/17. That's a little close for my taste but, you do have more time than you think.

[note4me]

how far are you in debt, you can always go for ch 13 if you don't hear from the medicaid. It's only ch. 7 that gets hard to file after oct 14 or so.

[grugan02]

i could potentially owe 30K to a hospital. It depends on the outcome of my medicaid application. I'll probably be denied so i have to be prepared.