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MedicalDebt Relief
With over
10% of our gross national product going to health care, the
increasing costs of medical care is a major contributor to
Americans’ rising need for debt relief. The cost of health care has
risen at nearly double the rate of inflation over the last 20 years.
Meanwhile, recent studies show that over 80 percent of medical bills
have overcharges. Fortunately, consumers can easily fight these
superfluous costs. The following is a list of common ways that
hospitals overcharge their patients. In order to check for medical
billing errors, one must first obtain an itemized bill and your
medical and pharmaceutical history records.
CommonMedical Billing Errors
1. Charges for services not actually rendered – By comparing your
medical and pharmaceutical records with your itemized bill, you may
be able to find discrepancies in the two. For example, it’s possible
that you’ll be charged for 9 blood tests when your medical records
suggest you only had 5 done. It’s also possible that you’ve been
charged for procedures that were actually performed on someone else
that was hospitalized at the same time as you.
2. Duplicate billing – Some patients may realize that they were
actually billed twice for the same thing. Again, thoroughly
analyzing your itemized medical bill is essential.
3. Billing for failed services – For example, let’s say you needed
two blood tests done because the first one was accidentally botched.
If this is the case, the hospital has no grounds for actually
charging you for the second test.
4. Phantom charges – Sometimes hospitals assume that if you had a
certain procedure done then you automatically incurred other charges
when this is not always the case. For example, if you broke your arm
they may assume they gave you pain killers when in fact they did
not. Other times you may be billed at a daily rate when in fact you
only received treatment for several hours. Under these circumstances
you should not have to pay for 24 full hours of treatment when you
were only ministered to for three.
5. Human or computer billing errors – Ultimately, your bill was
probably generated by a person or a computer, both of which are
prone to mistakes. Perhaps that Tylenol you received was
accidentally priced at $40 instead of $4. One simple slip of the
keyboard can cause a dramatic shift in the amount you’re asked to
pay. Probe your medical bill and see if any expenses seem out of the
ordinary.
Follow this link to learn more about
debt relief for hospital bills and other common ways medical providers over-bill patients.