Medical Debt 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.

Common Medical 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.