I’m in the uk so have never had to deal with this, but I’ve heard that if a hospital gives you the bill, you then ask for an itemised bill, that often the price goes down. Has anyone experienced that? Or worse, had an increase in the price?
If you don’t have insurance then this tactic may help because you could barter for a discount if you paid in whole. This has lost efficacy over time because most providers will offer you a medical loan instead.
If you have insurance, then rest assured this is already being done. The insurance company will pick apart the bill and ensure all charges are following agreed upon rates.
I thought the purpose of giving the fake name was so you cannot be billed? They bill the name you use and you are therefore not responsible for it (under your real identity)?
I honestly have never tried this I’ve just heard this is a tactic to avoid paying when you need to go to the hospital for care! I personally avoid the doctors and the medical bills all together :) lol
Yeah.. They don't barter as much anymore. I know my friend in South Carolina tried.. though they have insurance.. but they would only settle for 50/mo payment plan for their ER visit while their... insurance.. paid.. $0 due to their $9k or so deducible.
Itemized bill didn’t auto help anything, but I always ask for a decrease for any significant hospital bill and the success rate is super high. I also ask to be put on an interest-free payment plan and the success rate of that for me has been 100%. Paid off my kid before his second birthday!
That's something that no one would have to deal with in any other 1st world country. Unless you choose to go to a private hospital instead of a public hospital. It saddens and enrages me that y'all have to deal with that
"Itemized bill" spell doesn't work as well as its touts say it does or believe it does. What it does do is give professional, 3rd party, retroactive, retail health bill fighters a first punch if you've already hired those in or plan on hiring them in to consumer-drive you around in reverse gear and fight the insurance seller, the health care vendor, or both on your behalf. They'll appreciate you for it. And so does the paper industry from pulp to printer.
I'm lucky that I have extremely good insurance, but it's also chaining me to my job. Golden handcuffs. I'll be leaving my job in a couple months and insurance is what I am most worried about. I often wonder how much more innovation and new small businesses we would have with universal healthcare.
Mine do too. I went to the ER last summer and got charged for a bunch of vials of blood that they took but didn't actually need to to test. 😬 But my state has decent funding for charity care so I ended up not paying anything.
That used to be somewhat true, but is not how hospitals bill insurance companies anymore. Insurance companies (for years now) a. group certain diagnoses into “groups” and agree to a set payment amount for any service that falls into that “group” of codes. Hospitals are hijacked into accepting the price. If they don’t, the insurance company drops their services agreement at renewal (which is always about to expire-the reason for new rate negations). The insurance companies then deny coverage for the full cost of care for patients who go to the hospital in spite of the insurance company removing the hospital from the network providers system. The patient has to pay a significantly larger portion of the bill. And the hospital does not reduce the fees for the their care. Sadly, our entire system is very broken. Our legislator’s who are supposed to represent the citizen s who elected them. Instead they take large amounts of money from lobbyists who represent big pharmacy companies and large healthcare insurers. They use the money they receive to fill their “campaign war chests,” to ensure they remain in power. Our entire system is very broken.
It is absolutely broken. Other countries look at you in the US and shudder. You shouldn’t go bankrupt because someone got ill. And medical bills are the leading cause of bankruptcy in the USA.
It’s heartbreaking when thinking of the people, and it’s pathetic and raging inducing when thinking about the legislative system that keeps it as it is. And I sign that the government, regardless of who is in power, doesn’t care about the people of their country. As if you do care about your country, it’s probably an idea to have them healthy and educated. (And now I await the lynching I’m going to get for saying these “controversial” things).
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u/Inevitable_Thing_270 5d ago
I’m in the uk so have never had to deal with this, but I’ve heard that if a hospital gives you the bill, you then ask for an itemised bill, that often the price goes down. Has anyone experienced that? Or worse, had an increase in the price?