Hospital Debt 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 Common Medical 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.

Follow this link to learn more about debt reduction for medical bills and other common ways hospitals over-bill patients.