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HospitalDebt Relief
The first
step to obtaining adequate hospital debt relief is to demand
accountability from our medical providers. Many times it simply
involves analyzing our medical bills and checking to see that they
are accurate. This is a second part series on some common ways that
hospitals overcharge their patients. By checking your itemized bill
against your medical records, you may be able to save yourself quite
a bit of money.
More CommonMedical Billing Errors
6. Unbundling charges that should be packaged together – This is
a common way that patients are overcharged by hospitals. Not only
does this cause patients to pay twice for services rendered, but
medical providers are required to bundle charges related to a
specific procedure by federal law. Bundling refers to packaging
charges that were related to one particular procedure.
7. Excessive pricing – One of the most widely publicized criticisms
of hospitals, excessive mark ups for simple services or drugs is all
too common. Partly because insurance may cover much of the costs,
pricing items disproportionately to their cost is a well documented
affair in the medical industry. A Tylenol may cost the hospital 30
cents, but that does not mean they won’t charge $8 if you are
supplied one. Since mark ups are particularly extreme for drugs,
check out the price you were billed for against the average
wholesale price red book published by Medicaid each year.
8. Services not competitively priced - Many states have laws that
any medical charge must be reasonably priced. One easy way to argue
that a medical bill was not reasonably priced is by comparing the
charges incurred relative to other hospitals in the same area. You’d
be surprised by how much they can vary.
9. Miscoding the “DRG” – DRG refers to the diagnostic related group
code. Each code correlates to specific charges, so if your procedure
was miscoded it could lead to a dramatically pricier bill. The issue
of miscoding the DRG has been so prolific that it has lead to civil
and criminal charges in extreme cases. In order to figure out if
your DRG was wrongfully upgraded, you will need to talk to your
medical provider.
10. Unnecessary staffing for your procedure – Sometimes hospitals
will staff employees for a procedure when they are not necessary,
and by doing this, you could be forced to pay a higher bill.
Moreover, there are regulations in place that specifically prohibit
the use of certain types of staff for particular procedures.