Medical bills

[patriot15joe]

My wife had a procedure about a year ago. Paid our co-pay of about $2000 the day of the procedure. A year later almost to the day, we get a bill for $3600 for what the insurance didn’t cover and told its due in 30 days.

I have disputed a few charges on the bill and asked that they re-evaluate the charges as they seem excessive from what I can find online. I looked on healthcare blue book and a few other general searches to come to this conclusion. The hospitals response was that they do not negotiate rates and the best they will do is set a payment plan.

They billed us almost $9000 for the one hour procedure, from what I see on the blue book it should be $2500-$3000 for that procedure. I have no idea if that is reputable, but I did find some supporting threads in forums that seemed to confirm that price range.

Has anyone had any luck negotiating or settling with a hospital?

 

[Lilly001]

I have had bills from the hospital that were in excess of what they said the insurance company would pay.
At the advise of the girl in their billing department I waited for a couple months to find the bill reduced each month until it was ultimately 0$.
She said the insurance often pays slow and the hospital just sends out the bills. She said if you do pay, and it was not owed, you will have a hard time getting your money back.
That was my experience YMMV.

 

[treemanjohn]

Best advice i can give you is call the hospital directly and speak with a supervisor

 

[Throwback]

Call your insurance company. See what the contract between them is in regard to paying

 

[Railroader]

Going thru this same thing now. Got a $9000 dollar bill from an out of network anesthesia outfit that we had no choice but to use.

United Healthcare told me to ignore that bill, and any further bills, and tell them to pound sand.

UHC says they'll handle it.

$9000 for being knocked out for an hour?

I have no problem ignoring, and telling them to pound sand..

 

[WayneB]

two things:
ask for an itemized description of charges.
Ask for an audit of insurance transactions related to this procedure.

First item is a huge pain for them to produce, and they will often offer a large reduction in lieu of having to produce it.
Second item will usually get a supervisor involved, and they often find they are double-dipping and reduce the charges correspondingly.

I have successfully argued a $100 charge for $0.50 bandaid after getting the itemized description.
Prepare and dig-in for a siege, it takes time and effort to wrangle them up and wear them down.

 

[tcward]

Going thru this same thing now. Got a $9000 dollar bill from an out of network anesthesia outfit that we had no choice but to use.

United Healthcare told me to ignore that bill, and any further bills, and tell them to pound sand.

UHC says they'll handle it.

$9000 for being knocked out for an hour?

I have no problem ignoring, and telling them to pound sand..

Just follow up on it though or it may end up in collections. Same thing happened to me in 2020 when I got told some COVID related items would be paid…and they didn’t!

 

[au7126]

Had open heart surgery Dec 30 and only hospital that had a bed was in Macon Ga. Took me on a ride in ambulance from Madison Ga . The total bill at last count was north of $140000. Because I went "out of network" they are not going to pay some services. I really did not have any options and they had already had me in emergency room bed for 16 hours. Glad to be here and able to fuss about this while the bills keep coming.

 

[SASS249]

Contact your insurance company and get the actual Explanation of benefits from them. If your EOB shows nothing owned contact the hospital explain that your insurance says you owe nothing, be prepared to fax the EOB to them and this usually resolves it. If the EOB shows you owe something you can be on the hook for it. Keep in contact with the provider until this is resolved and keep all paperwork forever. Medical billing is often screwed up and you end up having to keep track of it. Good Luck.

 

[crackerdave]

Had open heart surgery Dec 30 and only hospital that had a bed was in Macon Ga. Took me on a ride in ambulance from Madison Ga . The total bill at last count was north of $140000. Because I went "out of network" they are not going to pay some services. I really did not have any options and they had already had me in emergency room bed for 16 hours. Glad to be here and able to fuss about this while the bills keep coming.

As long as you pay them each something..even just $25 dollars a month...they can't take your property.

 

[oops1]

We battle with medical claims yearly for my wife. . It is truly the biggest racket

 

[Hillbilly stalker]

My wife worked in the Business office at our local Hospital. Part of her job was to call and try to collect funds from past due accounts. Often the hospital would make offers ie: pash this cash amount in the next 30 day and the bill would be a third of the billed cost. A cow-worker of mine paid $2500 and settled a $9000 bill the same way. My wife found it was a lot harder to collect from the insurance companies than individuals. I would request a supervisor and attemp to negotiate, take your paperwork and research with you. They are busy, if you can give them something to hang their hat on they are more likely to say “Okay”. It’s worth a shot.

 

[Lilly001]

I’ve been told that medical bills don’t negatively effect your credit like other bills.
I had a bill from a dentist that I felt was bogus, long story, that eventually was sent to collections.
I finally settled it by paying 50.00 month for a couple years.
But it showed on my credit reports but didn’t seem to effect them.

 

[GeorgiaBob]

I retired early and instead of paying $15K up to $22K per year for health insurance, I negotiated for every medical expense over about 10 years. In my experience, hospitals will generally accept as payment in full an amount roughly equal to the usual insurance payment plus the normal "copay" amount. That usually adds up to somewhere between 35% and 55% of the amount that they print on their bill.

Several times I was told by someone in the billing office that I "must" pay the full amount, or that the hospital does not accept partial payments without a payment plan for the entire amount. In those cases I just kept going up the people ladder until I got to someone who had the authority to negotiate. I was always polite, but always insistent. The highest percentage of the original bill I ever paid was about 75%. That was to a radiologist who didn't bill the $20 for his review of an xray until six months later and was very hard to reach. The first thing his wife said when she pulled up the bill was, "How about $15?" I sent her a check that day.

In your case, I would suggest that you (politely) work your way through the people in the hospital's billing department until you get to someone at the hospital administrator or director level. I would first point out the normal and customary billing to the procedure, the actual amount paid by insurance, the amount prepaid by you, and the extremely high amount showing in the final bill. Then perhaps you could suggest that after a year's delay, it would be reasonable for the hospital to consider the bill fully paid and the extra $2,000 billed to be an error.

If you don't make progress with an administrator, perhaps carefully written letters to each member of the Board of Directors and each physician in the department covering briefly (but accurately) the events and charges would be in order. If you do write the Board, you should specifically name the outcome you seek and why it is appropriate.

Good luck.

 

[BassRaider]

Have the doctor/nurse/billing person, hospital or whomever and make them re-code the procedures. Insurance usually won't correct it for you. If you have a legit claim, get in their face! Been there, done that!

 

[ucfireman]

Better call Harry!

 

[westcobbdog]

My wife had a procedure about a year ago. Paid our co-pay of about $2000 the day of the procedure. A year later almost to the day, we get a bill for $3600 for what the insurance didn’t cover and told its due in 30 days.

I have disputed a few charges on the bill and asked that they re-evaluate the charges as they seem excessive from what I can find online. I looked on healthcare blue book and a few other general searches to come to this conclusion. The hospitals response was that they do not negotiate rates and the best they will do is set a payment plan.

They billed us almost $9000 for the one hour procedure, from what I see on the blue book it should be $2500-$3000 for that procedure. I have no idea if that is reputable, but I did find some supporting threads in forums that seemed to confirm that price range.

Has anyone had any luck negotiating or settling with a hospital?

Wish I could help more but perhaps call the Ga Governors Office of Consumer affairs and tell them the story. Also the beyond wise Cheapskate Clark Howard has volunteers who take questions in their area of expertise is a second suggestion for some basic advise from them.

 

[SASS249]

Georgia's surprise billing law went into effect Jan of 2021. If your wifes procedure was after that date then you have even more chance to get this reduced. Search for Georgia surprise billing law to get more details.

Still say your first step is to get the EOB from your insurance company to verify what they think you owe. I have had bills completely eliminated by providing the hospital with the EOB and telling them to deal with the insurance company. Don't fight a battle if someone else will do it for you.

 

[glynr329]

Pay as little as you can get away with each month. After 6 months to year ask how much can they cut the bill if you pay it off.

 

[LTZ25]

We battle with medical claims yearly for my wife. . It is truly the biggest racket

, agree .