Does anyone have any information on how to handle medical bills.

I recently received an $1800 bills from my cardiologist and a $2300 bill from the hospital after a heart cath.

I have an 80/20 insurance plan. I had no idea that an 8 1/2 planned trip to the hospital would cost $14,000. Six of those hours were laying in a hospital bed. The actually heart cath itself only took 30 minutes. I can't believe a hospital and doctor can charge a half a years wages for 8 1/2 hours work.

My insurance company did pay $9,100 of the $14,000 hospital bill.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Talk with the Dr. and Hospital billing office. I'm sure they can work out a payment arrangement. I'm so glad you're doing better, however.

i can really sympathize... we paid out so much money in the last 18 months or so to various doctors and hospitals, it's unreal.

so you're stuck with 4100... well here's how i got some discounts over our ordeal:

first thing to do is call up the hospital and ask if they'll offer you a discount if you pay the bill in full immediately over the phone. have a credit card ready, but make sure it's not high interest or anything like that. we used a 1% cash back card with a very low fixed interest rate. if not, there's no incentive for you to pay it immediately.

next option is to wait a couple billing periods. for the hospital we dealt with, on the third billing period they'd threaten collections action BUT would also offer a 15-25% discount if you paid it right away because collections means a loss of money to them. (we found this out accidentally, they kept forgetting to file it against our insurance- tread with caution here.)

finally, if no luck on either of those routes, obviously you don't want to actually GO to collections, that's bad... so call and work out a payment plan.

doctor's bills are far more difficult to get discounts on, i've found. we did get a year-end discount if we paid in full each december because his billing office wanted to bring all accounts current. again on the low interest cash back card. but i don't remember any other discounts.

good luck with everything.

Good information.

I was actually hoping for a 40% discount from both the doctors office and the hospital to pay in full as they receive less from the uninsured.

If I don't get 40% then I will pay $50/month to each as I am tired of delaying future financial goals. If/when I get the money to settle the account in full then I will pay them off.

I have no other debt.

your insurance company doesn't have negotiated lower rates? Everytime I get $25,000 from the hospital it comes back from my insurance and their max allowed rate ends up being $7000 which they cover their 90% of.

Discounts are great, but don't overlook the possibility of arguing the validity of individual items on the bill. Some things might have been unnecessary or even unprovided. Scour the bill and be sure you understand and received every item. Don't skim over the doctor's visits either. I wouldn't be surprised if your doctor had his golf buddy in for 'specialist consultation'. Make sure you get a written report on what the extra doctor found and, if it was information you already had, refuse to pay for it.

And, of course, call your representative in congress. Tell them you want less misguided 'smart' bombs dropped on Iraqi weddings and more health and insurance reform.

My bill is presented as followed:

Total Charges: $14,753.10
Insurance Payments: $9,161.87
Insurance Adjustments: $2,950.62
Cash Payment: $339
Misc. Adjustments: $0.00
Balance Due: $2301.61

The hospital really made out. I wish I could charge $14,753.10 for 8 1/2 hours work.

One of my pet gripes is what this post is about, I had cervical fusion of the neck in 1999 and went home in the afternoon and Doctors and hospital cost was $16,000 ,last year my wife had the same operation and did spend one night in hospital and the cost was $50,000 but we had good insurance and our cost was manageable. This past October a friend of mine had a heart attack and spent three weeks in intensive care and so far he has about $100,000 in Doctor bills and $300,000 in hospital bills. He has talked to several of the Doctors and they all have either discounted the bills all the way up to 1/2 to 2/3 and one has even written it off. People have told him the hospital will do the same if he waits.
My ole daddy always said a little bit of something is better than all of nothing. I suppose some doctors look at it the same way. Their fees are way out of line in my book.

Apparently i overlook how good my insurance is. the absolute total we ever have to pay in any year out of pocket is $2500 between all three of us. I guess I just assumed most insurance was like that.

Baker,

If you would, please share the insurance company and type of coverage as I (and others) may be interested in purchasing the insurance.

Bobcat,

I am upset mainly about three issues: one, the overall cost for the time spent (14k for 8 1/2 hours); two, the fact that no one said that what the cost of the procedure would be before determining that I "needed" it; three, the idea that hospitals and doctors charge these outragous fees and hope that they will stick (IE the responsible carry double the burden). Hospitals (like any other company) should state up front the cost of the procedure and the exact amount that the person will be responsible to pay. Hospitals (and doctors offices) are the only organizations that do not provide cost figures up front.

Also,

I will call the hospital and ask for someone to explain each charge to me. I have disclosed the items and charges in case anyone could provide me some questions to ask the billing office.

Disc 50% uninsured $0.00 <--- Hmm, I immediately paid more for BEING INSURED
BCBS / blueclassic $0.00
Visipaque 320 200ML $579.90
Cath Angiographic Expo Wr $133.00
Sheath Pinnacle $56.00
Inj Aortogram $824.00
Imaging Ventric/Atrial An $501.00
Imaging Pulm/Aortagram/Co $$757.00
Inj Selective Lt Ventricu $1,119.00
Inj Selective Coronary An $2,286.00
Gw Emerald J Tip Std $27.00
Heart Cath Retrograde $7,930.00
Prothrombin Time $56.00
Ptt Plasma/Whole Blood $86.00
Collection of Blood/Venip $31.00
Blood Count Hemogram Plt $112.00
Basic Metabolic Pnl $99.00
NACL-0.45% 1000ML IV $16.60
Midazolam Inj 2MG $3.60
Point of Service PMT 339.00- <--- Amount I paid upon arriving. The only amount I thought I would pay. I was wrong.
EKG w 12+ Leads Tracing O $136.00
PPO Other Adj $2,950.62- <--- Insurance Adjustment
Blue Cross Payment $9,161.87- <--- My insurance companies payment


Hope this will help produce additional insight.

JD,

If you could do a series of blogs dealing with the rising costs of medical coverage then that would be a GREAT benefit to readers as most of us will be dealing with medical costs in five to ten years. I am glad to say that I have conquered school, credit card, and auto debt but find tackling this debt increasingly frustrating.

its blue cross blue shield PPO provided through my union (I'm an electrician) I don't pay out of pocket for it as its part of our employer paid benefits package. It does cost my employer $10.23/hr though so i doubt you'd want similar coverage. That does include the cost of insuring all our retirees at 100% coverage but $20,000 a year is a lot for health insurance.

Electricians Local 134
(Cook County)
600 W. Washington Boulevard
Chicago, Illinois 60601
Tel: (312) 454.1340; Fax: (312) 454.1528

This is the second year of a four year agreement
(6.4.07 thru 06.01.08)
Effective Date 6.4.07
Base Rate $37.80
Foreman Rate $40.40
Health/Welfare $10.23
Pension Plan #2 $4.36
Pension Plan #5 $2.15
EJATT $0.75
NEBF $1.14
L.M.C.C. $0.19
ASB Plan $2.25
Sub Fund $0.50
AMF (Adm. Maint. Fund) $0.06
Sub Total $59.43
Drug Free Alliance $0.01
Total Package $59.44
Expiration Date 6.3.08
To be allocated June 2, 2008 $2.80

i think medical debt is the worst kind of thing to get stuck with. it's not like you can avoid it, much of the time it's not related to a bad decision you've made, etc. we could have paid off our car loan and student loans (only debt) with the amount we paid out, plus had a nice stash for the future. instead, we paid the electric bill for the entire hospital for the year.

[sigh]

unfortunately, i bet the only reason baker has such awesome coverage is that the employer is paying a massive chunk of change for it. self pay insurance is not cheap, especially if you want any kind of good coverage. i had considered a high deductible plan and an hsa, but with all the routine visits/services my husband still needs it wouldn't pay off for us. maybe it would for you?

my employer pays the entire thing for it, every penny of that $20,000 a year comes from them. Its really a fantastic plan but it costs a ton of money. The way I look at it though its part of our wage and benefit package so if they weren't paying for it it would be $10 an hour added to my check.

Yeah, I would rather pay $65/month and have a $4300 bill on top of that for medical coverage. However, if I could pay $300/month and $0 after then I would gladly up my insurance.

I'd say a very large part of that money goes to retiree coverage. The union pays 100% of all medical bills for retirees and their spouses. Thats a huge benefit to have in retirement though who knows if it will still exist when I retire.