Medical Bills: A Patient’s Guide to Understanding and Managing Costs
This excerpt provides helpful advice for dealing with medical bills. Here’s a breakdown of teh key takeaways:
* Negotiate: Don’t accept the initial bill amount. Providers expect negotiation, especially from insurers, and you can try to negotiate as a self-pay patient.
* Discounts: Ask about self-pay or charity care discounts if you’re uninsured or underinsured.
* Medicaid assistance: Medicaid patients should file complaints with their state program and managed-care plan if they believe a bill is incorrect. Seek help from caseworkers, legal aid, or consumer protection firms.
* Contact Representatives: State and federal lawmakers can advocate on your behalf with providers and insurance companies.
* “Bill of the Month”: As a last resort, the article suggests contacting “Bill of the Month” (presumably a service that investigates and perhaps resolves medical billing issues).
The article is from KFF Health News and distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.