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Saturday, August 08, 2015

Four Ways To Get Your Hospital Bill Reduced

Nearly one in three Americans received a surprise medical bill over the past two years for hospital procedures and healthcare services they believed their insurance policy would cover.

That’s the key finding of a new national survey by Consumer Reports that also found most Americans are so confused about their rights to contest an unexpected health bill that more than half (57 percent) simply pay the bill in full.

“For years we have heard horror stories from consumers hit with surprise medical bills following routine and emergency procedures,” said DeAnn Friedholm, director of the policy and advocacy arm of Consumer Reports.

“Even if you go to a hospital in your network, the unfortunate truth is that there is no guarantee that all your treatment — whether it’s the radiologist, anesthesiologist, or lab work — will be treated as in-network, leaving patients owing thousands of dollars they never anticipated.”

But experts note a handful of negotiating tricks can almost always get you a reduced bill. In fact, a secondConsumer Reports survey found that a whopping 93 percent of people who haggled over medical bills were successful in cutting their final costs.

Here are four tried-and-true negotiation strategies:

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I endued up in the ER in Hagerstown when traveling.. I was in there 5 hours with a kidney stone. CT scan, blood work, etc.
No insurance.
When I got the bills, I called them to see what they could do. They gave me a 20% discount right off the top, and more if I'd send payment within a reasonable time.

It always pays to at least ask them. To them, getting something is better than getting nothing.