Medical Bill negotiation, how should one do it?
Medical Bill negotiation, how should one do it?
So I went to a hospital the other day and was told I have a de-deductible of $3,000. I am not sure how much my insurance paid (if anything). At some point I have to talk to the hospital about payment and I want to talk them down to accept a lower amount. I do have some savings to offer, but I would like to get them to agree to take that amount and write off the rest rather than just admit I have that safety net and still have payments.
If it helps the discussion my insurance is supposed to be "managed". Which means that I call them and they then tell me where I can go and not have to pay anything out of pocket. It just happened that I had been having some pretty bad stomach issues I was hoping would go away. I then realized I had spend just under 2 days like this, but it was memorial day so their number was closed and any small clinic, so I went to the ER worried my appendix was bursting or something serious was happening to me.
Call the hospital, get the billing department ask if you can talk to someone about reducing the bill.
I had a similar situation once, said my chest hurt and everyone freaked out and I ended up with a 5k ER bill. With no actual answer to why my chest hurt, and was still hurting.
I talked to the hospital they set up an appointment with a woman, I showed bank statements, income, insurance information. Ultimately, because I had very little income or money at the time. They just forgave the entire amount. No more bill.
Definitely worth a shot.
31I will definitely be doing that.
6Wanted to add to this: if it can't go away, it's likley you can set up quite a long repayment at 0% interest. It will still hurt but at you can spread it out
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Ask for an itemized bill.
28Man, every time I read anything about the US healthcare system it gets more dystopian - I'm sorry you are having to deal with this nonsense
18Most (all?) health insurance companies in USA have clauses in their agreements with in-network providers (ie doctors, hospitals, pharmacists) to permit a covered patient to first receive the Explanation Of Benefits (EOB) document from the insurance company first, before having to pay a provider. In fact, waiting for the EOB is highly advisable, because paying a provider's bill in-full and then later having to obtain a refund because the insurer paid out is akin to pulling teeth (that is, painful and difficult).
The EOB also shows which claims the provider actually filed with the insurance company, which if full-and-complete means you should not expect to make any further payments for services received.
To be clear, the EOB also includes any amount which the covered patient is known to have paid at the time of service. For example, most in-network doctor's offices will charge the insurance policy's copay on-the-spot before seeing the doctor, since this is a known, fixed amount and insurance will pay the doctor some sort of negotiated remainder.
You should verify the EOB reflects any copays you've already paid, and that the costs have accrued toward whichever deductible applies to you -- more than one deductible can be at play.
To answer your question directly, I would not start any negotiation until you have the EOB in hand, because otherwise you are negotiating blind: you won't know which claims have been filed, and you won't know how much insurance has agreed to already pay.
10Thank you for your response. I will be reading the links you provided!
3I mostly do that but I have to tell you its a fight every time as even the reasonable places expect the bill to be paid like a week after they bill you. So they take 3 weeks to do the claim and bill you and they don't recognize the insurance company will take 3 weeks to process the claim formally and they certainly don't want to give you the curtesy of taking 3 weeks to compare the bill to the eob and send out the payment. Again this is the reasonable ones as many places insist on a credit card being put on file and maybe they have an agreement but I have literally been ghosted by providers if I refuse to put one down. So they technically are not requiring it but they are. Oh and to boot they mention if they charge you wrong it is fine because they will just refund you. Which means if you use an hsa debit card and they charge it and then refund you well they just basically acted as your money laundering agent for tax evasion. The US is wack.
2My limited experience with provider bills is that even two months "late", none have ever referred the bill to collections. Nor did they ever charge the "late" fees that their bills had threatened. I've never come across a provider that demanded a credit card on file -- and chargebacks would ensue if they did run the card without notifying me -- but my experience certainly won't be a consistent across the country.
I'm not sure what you mean about the part involving tax evasion, but broadly speaking: if a card is going to be held on file -- whether for a rental car or something else -- debit cards are not advisable. Also, my cursory understanding is that HSA cards should only be used for point of sale transactions, since apparently it could sometimes be declined for card-number-entered transactions.
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As an aside, regarding USA health care public policy, I think provider-issued bills need to be abolished, where the only bill that insured patients receive is a single, consolidated bill that comes from the insurance company, at the same time the EOB is sent, with plentiful payment and financing options.
Not only does this reduce patient confusion, it saves money for providers (who don't need to follow-up on late payments), it reduces the need for providers to issue refunds, and patients benefit because it's a single bill at the end. The only downside -- maybe -- is that forgiveness of a medical expense must file paperwork with the insurance company, to be reflected on the consolidated bill. But this would still be a massive improvement.
Or, instead, maybe just go the full shilling and have a national, single-payer, universal health care system. Baby steps or big leaps; take your pick.
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There were some good tips in this podcast episode: https://www.npr.org/2023/07/28/1190725808/tackle-your-medical-debt-with-life-kit
6They often have a cash price that's cheaper, but if you ask for that they won't bill your insurance and you'll never meet your deductible.
5Why would that not contribute to a deductible?
1The deductible is an amount that you pay out of pocket before insurance starts covering anything. So if insurance doesn't get billed, the money doesn't count towards the deductible. This may make it difficult to lower the bill at all, it really depends on how much the entire bill is compared to your deductible. If you can't pay it though, they'll have to give you an affordable payment plan. Definitely negotiate and don't take a loan out from some other source to cover.
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Our hospital used to reduce it by 20% if you paid it within a certain amount of time. I was trying my damndest to meet the deadline and certainly had them at the top of my bill paying pile. They got rid of it so they get date order now like all the rest.
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