Special Report: Why a Hospital Bill Costs What It Costs

Although I did not read the entire article, I did notice that hospitals are charging for depreciation of the medical equipment, (wear and tear) per the article.

Just as the insurance companies negotiate a price they will pay to the hospitals, you and myself can negotiate the final costs that are billed to us by the doctors, radiologist, labs, heart doctors , etc.

The different entities will either agree or disagree to work with you and myself. The key here is to ask for a discount. The enties carry insurance for such things and often will write off 30,40 50 % of your final costs.

We know this to be true as we have negotiated with many hospitals, doctors and labs, etc.

Watch your EOB’s( Explanation of benefits) to make sure that your procedures are coded correctly. We had one instance with an ambulance bill that was coded incorrectly from the hospital which inturn we were faced with a bill of 900.00 for a transfer from one hospital to another. The ambulance compnay said it was not life threatening. We went to the origating hosptal’s records departmwnt, produces the neccessary documents proving differently. Sent the documents to the ambulance company and called them as well. They were still stinky about it and we finally told them you can change the coding to reflect the truth and get paid or keep the coding the same and not see any more, the choice is yours.

Just remember, every service you and I pay for is negotiable.

Check out what it cost to have a baby in 1950.

It is boo-coo bucks now.

It cost a total of $1000 to have my daughter in 1977. I have no clue what they get these days.

$800 for a 5 minute ambulance ride a few years ago (kidney stone). No meds given, all they did was take my bood pressure. I don’t even know who called the ambulance, I think my neighbor did after I told folks I would not be able to drive.

Once I got the bill, I called and complained about it, the bill was reduced to $550. I am obviously in the wrong line of work.

Prearranging medical care can save you a bundle. You CAN shop medical services, and even rovide estimates up front for nearly any procedure. It’s the emergency stuff that gets you.

I had a little incident less than two years ago which required an operation and a lot of MRIs…total cost: 435,000.00….for a little more than a weeks stay with no food at all for 5 of those days…

I broke my wrist in June. Hospital charged $14,600 for surgery. Still need dr., anesthesiolgy, and ER bills. Not coomplaining though. We had to pay $720 of the hospital bill.