Having medical insurance is no guarantee you won’t be over billed. Many are finding inaccuracies in the bills they receive from hospitals and caregivers. The problem is less uncommon than one would think. It could be sloppiness or it could mean the right hand isn’t talking to the left hand. Hospital billing procedures often do leave a lot to be desired, since there are so many involved in the patient’s care. But errors do occur, and it is a good idea to do a line by line review of your hospital bill.
In one recent example, a young couple, he a doctor and she a nurse, had a bad billing experience. The husband had been hospitalized for a short time, and the wife began to review the bill line by line. She discovered charges for administering one drug 7 times per day, when it was only prescribed 4 times per day. The hospital had also made an error which caused her husband to have to stay an additional day. Because of her nursing background, she knew she didn’t have to pay for the extra day because of a medical mistake. She also found a charge for $875 for one drug that she knew should be around $80. Someone likely placed a decimal in the wrong place. Overall she found nearly $7000 of overcharges on the bill.
So when you receive a hospital bill, it is a good idea to sit down and review it very carefully. If you have questions, sit down with your doctor instead of the hospital billing department. The billing department is clerical by nature, and they don’t always have an accurate history of the care that was actually provided. Make sure you ask questions.
There are also resources that you can use to help you find out more information about your bill, there are patient advocates available and if you are having problems dealing with your insurance company you can contact the insurance commissioner in the state you live in, and they can help you.
By having health insurance, we want to be taken care of in case we need it. There is no need to be intimidated by a bunch of codes and numbers on the bill. The hospital can tell you in words what all of them mean. Medical bills can be filled with errors, and you certainly don’t want to pay excess charges. Do your homework, and you’ll get the corrections made that you need.
It may seem tough to find health insurance, now a days, however there is a solutions. check out www.individualhealthquotes.com and you can compare medical insurance from numerous companies at one time.
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