Newsflash: Hospitals are trying to Screw You
Note: When I say “hospitals”, I am referring to the billing office rather than the healthcare personnel (I’ll save that topic for next week).
As a result of spending some time in several hospitals, I have received so many bills that I believe the nation may have lost a major forest to supply the cause. Normally when I get one of these bills in the mail, I immediately put it out of sight, unopened, for I know I will be unable to pay whatever the amount for at least the next five years. A couple of days ago, however, I received several bills from a hospital where I know I owe nothing, so I decided to open them. To my disgust, the bills contained charges for thousands of dollars worth of services that occurred while I wasn’t even in the hospital. To put simply, this is just adding insult to injury.
Ignorance or Conspiracy?
After doing some research on this subject, I learned the disheartening truth that errors like these occur way too frequently. It is estimated that hospital overcharging adds up to more than $50 million annually, nationwide. Can we say INCOMPETANCE? Since overcharging is so prevalent, there are Claims Assistance Professionals (CAPs) that will sort through your bills and determine the appropriate cost for services. Medical Billing Advocates of America is one such organization. I must exercise a word of caution: Understand the way in which these companies charge you or you may be defeating the purpose of attempting to save money. I’m sure these groups are of help to people who can afford their services, but to the rest of us, I say… DO IT YOURSELF! Here are a few areas of interest when investigating incorrect charges:
- length of time in the hospital
- length of doctor appointments/surgeries
- type of medicine dispensed (if they gave you generic, don’t pay for the name brand)
- Did the insurance company receive appropriate claims?
- Is the insurance company paying what it is required to pay?
- Miles travelled in the ambulance
- Then there’s always the sketchy looking alpha-numerical-symbol combination that costs a cool $100
Something has to be done to reduce the rate at which these costly errors are occurring. It’s somewhat ironic to me that the hospital can make so many errors in overcharging you, but they never forget to send you the bill, nor do they ever under-charge you. Hmmm… No experts in the field will say that hospitals deliberately charge the patients incorrectly. I’ll end on that note.
March 3rd, 2008 at 9:06 am
I requested an itemized copy of our last hospitalization bill — it was mind boggling. I just wish I had paid more attention to the meds dispensed while we were there. . . I swear, I don’t think we had as much as they put down. . .
March 7th, 2008 at 7:15 am
fantastic article. i pray harm never befalls me, but if so this is a great heads up. thanks.