Just like most people, you will need to go to the hospital at least once in your lifetime. Whether you had an accident from snow skiing, got hit by a car, or fell down the stairs, you received an injury and need to be admitted to the hospital. But the biggest blow is not the injury but what comes after - the dreaded medical bill.
According to the American Journal of Medicine, medical bills were the cause of 62 percent of bankruptcies in 2007. An emergency visit to the ER or a few days stay in the hospital can cost you tens of thousands of dollars. The average person is not prepared to deal with such an outrageous bill. For most families, one emergency can wipe out their entire life savings, or even worse, push them to bankruptcy.
A lot of Americans are not covered by insurance, so if they get injured, they are pretty much screwed. Even if you have insurance, you may get treatment out of network without you knowing. The real problem lies in the hospital system and their billing methods. Hospitals are known to overcharge you for everything, up to 100x the cost. A splint that costs $2 can cost you $100. A needle that costs $10 can cost you $500. This is absolutely nuts.
When you receive your bill, you will be overwhelmed by feelings of shock followed by anger. Your stress levels will rise and your wallet will shrink. How you feel is understandable, many others have gone through the same thing. But whatever you do, do NOT ignore the bill.
After 6 months of inactivity, your bill will be sent to a bill collecter, which will have an affect on your credit score. Call the hospital right away to discuss payment options.
The good news is you have options available to you. Here's 5 ways to reduce your medical bill or fight an unfair medical bill.
Step 1
The very first thing you should do is request an itemized bill. You'll be surprised by how many times a hospital makes a mistake on the bill, charging you for things that they did not do. Go over every thing on the bill to make sure the charges are real and not made up. Some times billing makes mistakes, so it is your responsibility to make sure the bill is correct.
You can start protecting yourself before you bill comes - that's during your hospital stay. That is, if your injury isn't that bad can you can actually focus on what's going on. Document everything they do to you including all drugs and needles they give you. Some services may be unnecessary, such as an MRI. An MRI can cost $1,000 to $2,000, and it's not always necessary, depending on your condition. It is your right to say "no" and decline treatment.
I had an experience of being admitted to the hospital for an elbow fracture. I received an X-ray and that costs money, of course. But then the staff told me to get an MRI, which at the time I thought was absolutely nuts. But I went ahead with the MRI anyways. And when I got the bill, I realized I should've listened to my instincts. I should have said no to the MRI because it costs $2600!
Step 2
A decent hospital will offer some sort of financial aid. All hospitals over charge you, and they know most people can't afford a huge bill like that. Call the billing department and ask them about financial aid, and follow the process. Usually it involves filling out a form and mailing/faxing them the form, and wait for billing to get back to you.
Financial aid should reduce the bill by 50% to 70% at least. You may have to prove that you have financial hardship, but that is the easy part.
After financial aid is approved, you need to ask for a monthly payment plan. After all, there is no way you can pay thousands of dollars at once. Paying portions of the bill monthly will make a huge difference in your stress level and your wallet will thank you for it. You can pay as little as $50 a month and stretch out the payments for years.
It's just a hospital bill, so why rush to pay it? There's other things you can be doing with your money after all.
Step 3
If the hospital refuses to give financial aid, or if the financial aid is not enough, you're going to have to complain to the hospital. You have to be persistent and stand your ground, even if it means constant phone calls and mailing letters back and forth to them.
If the hospital still won't budge, then you need to dispute the bill. Luckily for you, the IDRE was created for this very purpose. Called the Independent Dispute Resolution Entity, their purpose to is help tax paying citizens like you with outrageous hospital bills.
What you do is go to their website and fill out a dispute form.
https://www.dfs.ny.gov/consumers/health_insurance/surprise_medical_bills
The IDRE will review your case and decide the outcome within 30 days. They decide on what the final bill will be, and their decision is final. More details can be found at their website.
If you have any questions you can email them
IDRquestions@dfs.ny.gov
When you fill out the form, you will need to write out the complaint in its entirety. I suggest you write the story out on a notepad file. Have a clear format of intro, body, and conclusion and make sure your story makes sense to a complete stranger. Include everything that happened from the moment you were injured to your stay at the hospital. List out everything they did to you and how you were surprised by the outrageous bill. Don't forget to include that you have financial difficulties and this bill is a burden for you.
Step 4
It's a good thing we live in the USA and we have the Attorney General to turn to. There is no guarantee that the IDRE will resolve your conflict or even take your case to begin with. There's still options for you as a law abiding citizen. Call the Attorney General and tell them about how the hospital ripped you off.
Attorney General
800-428-9071
Just like the IDRE, the results are on a case by case basis. It's better than having to fight the bill by yourself. You're going to have to explain your story to the attorney general. So grab that story that you wrote for the IDRE and use it.
Step 5
If all the above methods have failed, you will need to take extreme measures. WABC has a program called 7 on your side. If you have been ripped off by a hospital bill, they might take your story. If they take your story, they will interview you and it will go public.
Do you still have the story you wrote for the IDRE? You're going to revise the story to make it more appealing so that 7 on your side will choose you. Really hammer the fact that the hospital victimized you and how they mislead you, and also you have financial difficulties.
Although this will not reduce your bill, you can see it as a final resort. You can at least let the public know about the hospital's evil practices and embarass them publicly. Your story may inspire others to not get scammed by the same hospital, and maybe some law makers will step up and make the hospital change their ways.
If your story becomes public you can set up a GoFundMe to receive donations.
Optional Tip - Set up a GoFundMe
So you've managed to get financial aid and set up a monthly payment plan. You can take it one step further and have others help pay your bills. After all, that's what friends are for, right?
Setting up a GoFundMe is easier than you think. There's 3 steps: register for an account, write your story, and set up a payment option.
How to write a good story?
The point is to victimize yourself, portraying how the evil hospital took advantage of your weakness and hit you with an unfair bill. You're just a law abiding citizen who did not ask for an injury, but you were admitted to the hospital because you had no choice. Every story has pictures, so take lots of pictures of yourself within the hospital and out of the hospital. If appropriate, include a picture of the bill to add more authenticity to the story.
You should describe in detail why you're having financial hardships so other people can relate to you. Mention how you have to take off work just to go to the hospital, how much money you're losing, and how you have a family to raise.
Since you're going to be posting your GoFundMe on social media, you should be more selective of what you post publicly. For example, if you post pics of yourself eating at expensive restaurants, then stop doing that for a while. Otherwise your story will not add up.
Here are some more tactics you can use to complain about the hospital.
The link to file a hospital complaint is
https://apps.health.ny.gov/surveyd8/facility-complaint-form#no-back
Follow the instructions on the form and fill it out entirely. Alternatively, you can call this number to file a complaint:
800-804-5447
If you want to complain about a specific doctor or PA, go to these links:
https://www.health.ny.gov/professionals/doctors/conduct/
https://profiles.health.ny.gov/hospital/pages/billing
Even though all hospitals are a complete rip off, you can't avoid going there if you're injured or really sick. The good news is that hospitals have systems in place to help with your financial burden, as well as agencies that are here to help consumers deal with the rip off bills.
Hopefully this post helped you save some time, money, and headaches. Please leave a like and share on social media. If you have some tips you want to add to this post, please email me.
Benjamin Louie
Neobux Ultimate Strategy
https://ultimateneobuxstrategy.com/
