Get an itemized bill
Ask for an itemized bill, so that you can review it and make sure the charges are correct, suggested McClanahan, a member of the CNBC Financial Advisor Council.
Ask for an itemized bill, so that you can review it and make sure the charges are correct, suggested McClanahan, a member of the CNBC Financial Advisor Council.
For instance, Medliminal, a company that identifies medical billing errors, generally finds that 25% of the charges on the bills it has reviewed are not billable.
Look for other sources of payment
You may have overlooked ways to cover your bills.
“I often had people eligible for Medicaid or subsidized insurance that they were able to get,” said Jenifer Bosco, staff attorney at the National Consumer Law Center.
“In some states, when you qualify for Medicaid, there is retroactive eligibility.”
If you have no insurance, check with your providers to see if they offer a discount to uninsured patients.
There are also federal requirements for nonprofit hospitals to provide financial assistance programs for low-income patients. The aid varies depending on the state and the institution.
However, 45% of nonprofit hospital organizations routinely send out bills to patients who have income low enough to qualify for charity care, according to an analysis by Kaiser Health News, an editorially independent program of the Kaiser Family Foundation
Ask to lower the bill
Once you have explored all the options for payment, it’s time to see if you can get your bill lowered.
“Consumers may not realize that you can contact the health-care provider or the hospital and ask to negotiate,” Bosco said.
Reach out, be nice, and tell the provider that you can’t afford to pay the bill. Then, ask for a reduction.
Uninsured patients are usually charged the master rate, or the maximum that the hospital would charge for a particular procedure, Bosco noted.
She suggests asking to pay the Medicare rate, which health-care providers are generally very familiar with.
You can also check out the estimated costs of the procedure in your area on Healthcare Bluebook.
Remember, it’s not the doctor you’ll be dealing with but the billing department.
“The billing people have gotten so used to negotiating that they expect it,” McClanahan said.
Don’t expect to be successful at first, she noted.
Harness was able to get his bill down after filing a grievance with the hospital. In November, he was given a 30% discount for both surgeries, bringing the cost down to $56,152.40, he said.
He and Novick-Smith continued to follow up with the hospital to try to lower the bill. They argued he shouldn’t have to pay for the second surgery since it was most likely a complication from the clipping and stapling of the appendix tissue during the first surgery.
In May, the hospital reduced the bill to $25,143.20. Harness responded by offering $12,000, based on what Healthcare Bluebook noted was a fair price for an appendectomy The couple then got their bill knocked down to $22,304.17.
After Harness and Novick-Smith brought their story to Kaiser Health News, the hospital came back with their final offer: $19,335.
Request a payment plan
Once you have your final, negotiated bill you can still request to go on a payment plan.
Be very careful and make sure that the monthly payments are ones you can afford, Bosco advised.
“Try to come up with a realistic payment plan,” she said.
Harness is now on a plan to pay off his final bill. It is still a big chunk of his monthly income, but fortunately some friends set up a GoFundMe account to help him out.
“It felt really great that people cared to give a portion of what little they had to help me out in this situation,” he said.
Harness now has insurance through the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. He said he has also been approved for VA disability benefits for his hearing loss and has applied for benefits for spinal and knee issues due to his time in service.
by Michelle Fox, CNBC | Read more:
Image: Brian A. Jackson|Getty Images[ed. We'll all have this experience at some point (maybe mulitple times). What a
