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Negotiating Hospital Bills


OSUGT

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Anyone ever done this? Anything work best for you while speaking to the hospital? My wife and I just had a baby, but it just blows my mind what they get away with charging. It cost more just to stay in the hospital for two days than the actual delivery! Unreal.

 

We have good insurance, but the out of pocket is still pretty high. I was just wondering if there is a good "word track" to use when calling these people.

 

Maybe something like a "cash discount"? I want to work an angle so it doesn't affect my credit score as well.

 

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

 

Thanks

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Go through the bill carefully. There's always BS shit in there. My buddy was charged 100 bucks for a box of nitrile gloves. They only used two pair.

 

no doubt...i've also heard horror stories about 20 dollars per aspirin. I'm starting to understand just how broken the system is. If a hospital can charge the insurance company anything they want, no wonder costs and premiums continue to rise.

 

Our son had to spend a couple days in the NICU. Nothing major, but he needed some extra care. The primary dr saw him every day. He was released on a Friday. The primary pediatrician was off and another doctor came in before they discharged him. She looked at him for all of 5 mins and said, "Yep, he's fine" We got the bill for that and it was 400 bucks. I really can see how one serious illness or injury can cause financial catastrophe.

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I had some second degree burns across my chest and arm last year that caused me to go to the hospital. My mouth dropped when I got the bill for that and then again after my surgery. I paid 45 bucks a piece for vicodin, 300 bucks for a doc to say "yep, those are second degree burns, 53 bucks for a tube of burn cream, etc. I think the prices are so high because they expect some people not to pay. My co-worker said he was able to negotiate a cash price when his wife was hospitalized. I think he said he saved like at least a couple thousand bucks.
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Talk to them, tell them what you can afford, as long as you pay them something each month they can't send anything to a credit agency. This is not a loan. I have heard of people paying $5 a month for a long time.

 

This is pretty much what we had to do after recieving the 200K bill for the bone marrow transplant :(

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We also had a guy at work that had major surgery. He had three separate issues, but they were able to do it all at once. They billed him as having three separate surguries. There's even a name for the tactic. It's called unbundling I guess. The insurance company seen it and had them "correct" the paperwork. Saved him a ton of money. Something like 7 grand.
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be thankful you have insurance, pay the bill, and enjoy the new addition to your family. negotiating pricing is what people who don't have insurance do. funny, we even provide the exact same service to people who have absolutely no means of paying for it--
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We also had a guy at work that had major surgery. He had three separate issues, but they were able to do it all at once. They billed him as having three separate surguries. There's even a name for the tactic. It's called unbundling I guess. The insurance company seen it and had them "correct" the paperwork. Saved him a ton of money. Something like 7 grand.

 

unbundling is illegal for most procedures. so if i replace both knees in a patient, i get paid 100% for the first, and 50% for the second--

 

sure, the hospital stay might not be as much, but i'm not getting paid correctly. imagine going to someone's house---fixing their sink, the toilet, and the bathtub---you receive 100% payment for the sink, 50% for the toilet, and 50% for the bathtub---seems fair, right??

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be thankful you have insurance, pay the bill, and enjoy the new addition to your family. negotiating pricing is what people who don't have insurance do. funny, we even provide the exact same service to people who have absolutely no means of paying for it--

 

Felt this way until my insurance got billed 7000 dollars for a 2 night hospital stay. Did I miss something or did we stay the the Waldorf Astoria? Funny how you still provide services to the uninsured. I wonder who pays for that? I'm all for paying what "I" owe. Seems like I'm getting dinged for everyone else as well.

 

If you don't ask, you don't get.

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unbundling is illegal for most procedures. so if i replace both knees in a patient, i get paid 100% for the first, and 50% for the second--

 

sure, the hospital stay might not be as much, but i'm not getting paid correctly. imagine going to someone's house---fixing their sink, the toilet, and the bathtub---you receive 100% payment for the sink, 50% for the toilet, and 50% for the bathtub---seems fair, right??

 

It works the same on cars. Might get 1.0 hrs for one side for a brake job and 1.3 hrs for both. Never made sense but that is the way it works.

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be thankful you have insurance, pay the bill, and enjoy the new addition to your family. negotiating pricing is what people who don't have insurance do. funny, we even provide the exact same service to people who have absolutely no means of paying for it--

 

We had full health insurance (as a family) and my father's VA benefits.

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It works the same on cars. Might get 1.0 hrs for one side for a brake job and 1.3 hrs for both. Never made sense but that is the way it works.

 

But you get both done in .8 hours and move on.

 

Works the same for most things. Buy one valve spring it's 20 bucks. By a set of 16 it's 250 bucks. They all cost the same to make.

 

We may charge $25k for the initial testing. $10k after that. Once the engine is instrumented and mounted, further testing is not as costly.

Edited by Doug
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I have heard of people getting steep discounts from hospitals and doctors if they can pay cash and or pay the full amount up front, I think it was upward of 40% off. Obviously most people cant afford somthing like that but if you can you can get a big discount.
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When I had appendicitis last spring, the hospital billed the insurance company $26k. My health insurance company negotiated that down to like $12k, and my 20% was about $2300. My wife and I happened to be in position to pay the full amount we owed in one lump, but she asked if there was a paid in full, cash discount. There was, and the hospital knocked gave us a 10+% discount for paying the bill in full, and made the bill $2000 flat. Now if I could just get a hold of the anesthesiologist... That dude bills separately from the hospital.
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