I was reading thru posts today and saw a mama talking about money stuff, including a pile of medical bills. Well, I am in medical billing now, sort of "on the inside", and mamas believe me, there are ways to negotiate your way out of a HUGE chunk of that burden. At least the bills from the DOCTORS. If you have bills from facilities, that may be a different story since there's no one person to negotiate with. But when you have a bill from a doctor(or group or practice or whatever), generally you have a lot of wiggle room. The company I work for has been billing for 35 years and we have a lot of doctors....there are almost 40 of us gals working for these guys and it's the same across the board. I can't even begin to tell you how much money I write off people's bills simply because the patient knew what questions to ask.

So, if you've got a big ol' pile of medical bills that are stressing you out, feel free to PM me, and maybe I can help you find the questions to ask. I just feel this NEED to post this right now...so someone out there must need whatever help I can give (or, my spidey sense is tingling!)

Toodles!

Gee, now you post this after I paid off a huge chunk! LOL! Well, do give me tips as I know some people who are currently struggling...

That's good to know, what about dental bills?

we just had an er visit this past weekend and i am bracing myself for the bill. we are part of an hmo, i did call and get permission first but it was sunday at 3 am.

my dd was not admitted but was kept for several hours until her o2 stabilized. if our claim is accepted our part of the bill will be abotu $150. if it's not accepted i don't even want to think about the amount.

do you have any tips for me?

Well, I got more replies than I expected LOL...and really quick too, so I imagine there'll be more! So, I'm just gonna post some general tips here, and will be happy to try and answer any more specific question if needed.

Now, keep in mind, I'm in Illinois. There are eleventy bazillion laws governing this crap, and they're different everywhere. It's possible that what I say here may not amount to a hill o' beans where you live, but I doubt it. These are medical bills. It's not like we go to the emergency room for fun (I think I'll have my appendix out today! lalalala). ***AS FAR AS I KNOW*** they cannot come after you and ruin your life and your credit over medical bills AS LONG AS YOU PAY ON THE ACCOUNT REGULARLY!!

So, onward with the potentially useless advice :D

Oh, everything I'm about to say applies to bills coming from a practitioner, not a facility. With a facility bill you don't have one specific person who's interested in your money, but they should still be willig to work with you, so it doens't hurt to call. And I imagine dentists would be the same as any other dr, so dental patients, read on!

If you DO NOT have insurance, you have been billed the full amount for the services rendered. The Drs get paid WAY less than this when there is insurance involved. Call the phone number on your statement. You will probably get a billing service which isn't in the same place as the doctor. Simply ask them if the dr will discount your bill. They'll probably tell you that if you pay a certain percentage, the rest can be written off once that percentage is paid. Many doctors do this without a second thought. One of the drs I bill for, I can write off up to 25% of a patient's bill without even getting the dr's ok. But the patient has to call me! If for some reason the biller won't or can't help you, or the amount is still too much, then get in touch directly with the dr and ask him. He/She has a personal interest in getting paid, and knows that a patient is more likely to pay if the dr is willing to work with them. Keep in mind that if you had insurance, the dr would receive quite a bit less money than the amount he's billing you, so you can easily use that argument in your quest for a discount. Whatever the agreement is, PAY ON THAT BILL! An account that is paid on each month is kept current, is kept out of collections, and is not a problem. Sure your statments will have messages on them that make it sound like they want ALL the money RIGHT NOW OR ELSE, but they have to sound tough or some people wouldn't pay their bills :-) These messages are meaningless computer-generated gobbledy gook, as long as money comes in each month. I have one patient whose bill is $598. He plans on paying it in 100 payments. That means that for the next almost 9 years, I'll get a little less than $6 a month. But his account is current!


If you DO have insurance, first, get all your explanations of benefits that your insurance company mailed to you. If you don't have them, call them up and get copies. You have to know what exactly you're being billed for. If your insurance has paid everything they're supposed to, then the balance is a combination of your deductible, copayments, and coinsurance. There may be more charges beyond those if you used an out of network provider. Look at the total amount billed, then figure out what percentage of that total you're being billed for. Like I said, many drs have an amount they'll automatically write off just for asking. If ins paid, it's possible for your entire balance to be within that limit! Just call and ask if it's possible to discount your bill.

Now, look at those EOB's. Were any charges DENIED? (denials do not include amounts applied to deductible/copays/coinsurance). Anything that was denied has probably been billed to you at it's full amount. Call the dr and ask if he'll take the amount that insurance would have paid him if they had approved the charges. It's VERY likely that he will.

Was your provider out of network? Call and ask the same questions. Ask if a discount is available. Ask if they'll take the amount they would have gotten if they'd been paid as in network. And here's a very important point. If you were told that the dr was in network, or if your situation was such that you were unable to pick and choose who performed the services, call your insurance company and chew on their ear for a while till they agree to reprocess the charges.

Did your insurance company mail you any forms to fill out? Questionnaires to answer? If you didn't return those things, they ain't payin'. Give them whatever they want LOL

If all else fails, just pay. No matter how little you can send them each month, do whatever you can to keep your account current. They are SO SO SO much more likely to cut you a break if they see you are at least making the effort.

My brain is fried. I'm probably going to read over this tomorrow and go "OMG I can't believe I told them this and forgot this!!"

I hope it's helpful to someone. Basically all you have to do is ask. If the billing office won't help you go straight to the dr. Don't feel weird about asking. TRUST me, they get phone calls like this all the time and are happy to help. I would MUCH rather have a patient call me and tell me they can't pay their bill, than to never hear from them and have to send them to collections. And remember, be nice to your friendly neighborhood medical biller. She's essentially a data entry clerk who's just doing her job.

YAWN

Nighty night!

Originally posted by danica
my dd was not admitted but was kept for several hours until her o2 stabilized. if our claim is accepted our part of the bill will be abotu $150. if it's not accepted i don't even want to think about the amount.

do you have any tips for me?

Danica... are you guys still with CIGNA? If so, you should only get billed for the co-pay which is $75. When we took Josh the first time he had a febrile seizure, they ran all sorts of tests and I know they billed the ins for close to $900 but we were only responsible for the co-pay.

Hope the kiddos are ok!!