Disputing Medical Bills

What to Expect When Disputing Medical Bills

If you feel that your medical bills contain errors and want to dispute them, you should get help from a professional with experience in this area. Medical billing is very complex and unless you’ve had experience with a hospital or physician in their billing department, you will have no idea what the charges mean and what you should and should not be paying for. Here are some tips to help you on this journey.

Disputing medical bills is something people face on a daily basis. If you’ve received a large medical bill, ask for a detailed itemized statement of the charges. Recent studies have discovered that over 80% of medical bills contain mistakes. It is likely that yours do as well.

Errors to look for when disputing medical bills are duplicate billings, incorrect procedure code, non-billable items, unbundled items and exorbitant charges for services you did not receive. When auditing a medical bill, it is helpful to have the procedure codes that the provider used to file a claim with your insurance company. You have a right to this information and the facility must supply it to you when you ask.

Researching by code rather than procedure name will show whether you were billed for a more complicated version of the procedure than you received. Your itemized medical bill will reveal the type of room for which you were charged in the emergency room. For example, if you were in the emergency room to treat a broken leg, but were billed for a life-saving room which requires more equipment and staff, this will be revealed through specific codes on your itemized medical bill. Finding these kinds of errors on your bill will prove to be very helpful.

Other Medical Charges to Dispute

Aside from the erroneous charges and improper use of billing codes, look for patient gouging in your bills. Hospitals charge varied prices for procedures for a simple reason – because they can. You might have been charged 300% or 400% more than the industry standard for your procedure, but you can request that the hospital reduce that charge to the industry standard.

Getting a Medical Bill Corrected

Medical billing is a very complicated system, so much so that it can take weeks or even months for a patient to get anything done when they are disputing medical bills. It pays to use a medical bill auditing company to handle getting your medical bills corrected quickly.