Help & FAQ
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes, medical bills are negotiable, however, most patients don’t ask for a discounted price! Results are not granted but it doesn’t hurt to try to lower your bill.
Anybody is eligible to negotiate their medical bills. You can negotiate out of network expenses, deductibles, copayments, surprise bills, hospital bills, urgent care bills, and services provided for uninsured patients.
You can negotiate your charges as early as before receiving the care.
Insured patients should wait until their insurances has paid their portion and they receive their final bill from the provider with the remaining unpaid balance.
Uninsured patients can start negotiating as soon as they receive the very first bill since there’s no insurance payments’ processing time.
Medical bills can also be negotiated after being sent to collections or a collecting agency.
If you reach out to your provider promptly and have a discussion about your inability to afford the full cost of the care, there’s a very high chance they will be understandable and will try to work out an affordable payment plan. If you’re experiencing an emergency, hospitals are legally required to treat you.
Yes, providers are more likely to accept an interest free payment plan that will allow you to make smaller payments over a period of time to pay your bill.
Your in-network surgeon may perform a surgery at an in-network hospital but the hospital might use an out-of-network anesthesiologist or physical therapist that will charge you out-of-network rate
Yes, if you’re willing to pay cash upfront, most providers will negotiate a discounted rate with you to avoid going through insurance and reduce the risk of not being paid for their services. It’s important to keep in mind that if you don’t go through insurance, these payments won’t count toward your deductible or out-of-pocket expenses.
Yes, it is more common than most people expect to find at least one error in a hospital bill that is costly to the patient.
Yes, even though medical bills are complicated for a regular person, there are some common errors that you might be able to detect on your own. Refer to “What are common errors on a medical bill?” for examples.
Double billing: A provider might bill you twice for the same service. This is easy to detect if they use the same words to describe the service but often times they might use different words to describe the service which makes it difficult to recognize.
Incorrect medication units: This happens when the doctor enters an incorrect dose of medication or when they enter a medication that you ended up not taking
Preventive care charges: Preventive visits are usually 100% covered by insurances but you may see a charge for a diagnostic visit instead which results for an out-of-pocket expense.
Denied charges: Insurances may deny a service inaccurately when it was supposed to be covered. This is usually requires more knowledge but you should be able to contact your insurance and ask for more details.
Partial payments: Insurances may pay 75% of a the cost of a service when they were supposed to cover 80%. You need to have a good understanding of your policy to be able to detect this error and simply call them to inquire.
An EOB stands for Explanation of Benefits and it’s not a bill or represents money owed. Your insurance will send you an EOB anytime a healthcare provider bills them for a medical service you receive.
EOBs are very important to understand your charges, what your insurance covered and how much you owe to your provider.
Even though insurances are trying to make EOBs easy for patients to understand, most patients find difficulties understanding the information in their EOBs
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