almost 2 years ago
Missy
said...
Is there a trick to getting discounts from doctors and hospitals?
My brother always tells me (and my mom) "negotiate with your doctors/hospitals". I've never tried it, though. Have you done it and ended up with a reduced bill? Or some sort of good payment plan? Tell me how you went about it and what the result was.
Thanks so much!
My 22 year old son was out of work and had no insurance when his appendix burst. After emergency surgery and a 3 day hospital stay he faced a $60,000 bill. He found out that the hospital had a fund to grant free medical care for a select number of patients per year. He wrote a letter to the hospital administrator and within the year the bill was waved.
Ask your doctor and the hospital up front if they have any reduction in fees or special funding for those who need it. My husbands oncologist has a charity that reimburses the cost to travel to his office. Pharmaceutical companies may grant temporary reductions in medication costs.
good luck, and continue to vote for improved medical access for all Americans.
My 22 year old son was out of work and had no insurance when his appendix burst. After emergency surgery and a 3 day hospital stay he faced a $60,000 bill. He found out that the hospital had a fund to grant free medical care for a select number of patients per year. He wrote a letter to the hospital administrator and within the year the bill was waved.
Ask your doctor and the hospital up front if they have any reduction in fees or special funding for those who need it. My husbands oncologist has a charity that reimburses the cost to travel to his office. Pharmaceutical companies may grant temporary reductions in medication costs.
good luck, and continue to vote for improved medical access for all Americans.
Hey Missy,
All you have to do is ASK. And you don't have to ask in advance either. In the past year I have: -had a "doc in the box" bill reduced from $350 to $225 (approx) -had a hospital ER bill reduced from $1800 to $630 (approx) -had a hospital ER Doctor bill reduced from $680 to $300 (approx) You do no have to be uninsured either. In my case I have health insurance that I am paying for but I have such a high deductible that the charges for the incidents were in the deductible. My deductible is 3X$3500 (3 family members at $3500 deductible each). The reason my deductible is so high is so I can even afford to have health insurance rather than be completely without it just in case we have a catastrophic incident in our family. Our monthly premium for health insurance is approximately $600/month for a family of 4, which is still not all that cheap.... And after I asked for the bills to be reduced I asked for a payment plan. All of the medical providers involved were more than happy to let me make a monthly payment of $50 or $100 until I had the bills paid. I did find though that one provider would not send me a monthly statement; I had to be responsible for calling them every month to make the payment by the date we agreed on. I asked them to please mail a receipt each time I made a payment for my records and they did.
Hey Missy,
All you have to do is ASK. And you don't have to ask in advance either. In the past year I have: -had a "doc in the box" bill reduced from $350 to $225 (approx) -had a hospital ER bill reduced from $1800 to $630 (approx) -had a hospital ER Doctor bill reduced from $680 to $300 (approx) You do no have to be uninsured either. In my case I have health insurance that I am paying for but I have such a high deductible that the charges for the incidents were in the deductible. My deductible is 3X$3500 (3 family members at $3500 deductible each). The reason my deductible is so high is so I can even afford to have health insurance rather than be completely without it just in case we have a catastrophic incident in our family. Our monthly premium for health insurance is approximately $600/month for a family of 4, which is still not all that cheap.... And after I asked for the bills to be reduced I asked for a payment plan. All of the medical providers involved were more than happy to let me make a monthly payment of $50 or $100 until I had the bills paid. I did find though that one provider would not send me a monthly statement; I had to be responsible for calling them every month to make the payment by the date we agreed on. I asked them to please mail a receipt each time I made a payment for my records and they did.
The sqeaky wheel gets the grease!
The sqeaky wheel gets the grease!
Some things to think about...doctors are generous when you ask for a discount but keep in mind that they also have a practice and employees to maintain in order to serve you. It's tougher to get a facility/hospital to discount because they have a real big time problem financially--the reimbursement from insurance is pitiful for the cost for the institution...
so as a patient advocate, it's mostly those pts who have no insurance or unemployed/low income that we support in discounting the bill, doing payment plans.
Some things to think about...doctors are generous when you ask for a discount but keep in mind that they also have a practice and employees to maintain in order to serve you. It's tougher to get a facility/hospital to discount because they have a real big time problem financially--the reimbursement from insurance is pitiful for the cost for the institution...
so as a patient advocate, it's mostly those pts who have no insurance or unemployed/low income that we support in discounting the bill, doing payment plans.
Just call and tell them the circumstances. I landed in the hospital after I retired and before my medicare kicked in (because SS misplaced my forms twice). I called each hospital and doctor and got everything reduced except the ambulance. They had no provision for reducing that.
Just call and tell them the circumstances. I landed in the hospital after I retired and before my medicare kicked in (because SS misplaced my forms twice). I called each hospital and doctor and got everything reduced except the ambulance. They had no provision for reducing that.
I found the staff in my doctor's office very helpful in steering me towards providers that offer discounts. Such as which lab will discount if I pay at time of service and say I'm one of this doctor's cash paying patients.
Today the doctor's staff directed me towards a radiology lab that was giving a sizable discount on mammograms during October because if is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month. The lab I usually use for this pretty much laughed at me when I asked about a discount since I had no insurance and wasn't working.
I found the staff in my doctor's office very helpful in steering me towards providers that offer discounts. Such as which lab will discount if I pay at time of service and say I'm one of this doctor's cash paying patients.
Today the doctor's staff directed me towards a radiology lab that was giving a sizable discount on mammograms during October because if is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month. The lab I usually use for this pretty much laughed at me when I asked about a discount since I had no insurance and wasn't working.