Haggling the medical bill, is it possible?

[project15]

My wife had an emergency appendectomy about 1.5 months ago. The insurance covered the majority of it ($27k) and now I get to come up with the remaining $1300 which is what I owe from my deductible. Yippee!

One of my co-workers said that I can haggle with the hospital to get the bill lowered, but I'm not sure that's possible. Is that something that can be done?

btw...I have the money to pay it (thank you emergency fund), I'm just always looking to save money like the rest of you.

[humandraydel]

You can try but the insurance company already negotiated. The surgury would probably cost $40k without insurance.

[project15]

You can try but the insurance company already negotiated. The surgury would probably cost $40k without insurance.

Yeah, I looked at my claim with the insurance and it was about $30k overall since it was an emergency rather than planned surgery. Oh well, this is proof that health insurance is very necessary in the USA

[zabbkoff]

After we had our first child came the flood of bills (yes, we have health insurance to clear that up). On one of the higher bills (near the same amount as you have to pay ~$1200) I simply had a question, so I called about it. I'm not sure how it happened, but the lady helping me out said that if I was going to pay in full within a certain amount of time (10 days or so) that they would give a 25% discount. My response... The check is in the mail. Literally.

Wouldn't hurt to call and say something like "I'm hoping to pay off this bill as soon as possible, do you offer any discounts if it's paid in full?" Maybe if you make it sound like you could pay it off if it was lowered a little....

Good luck!

[Mike_Joiner]

Yep have heard it's all negotiable, especially if you are in financial difficulty. All companies prefer some money rather than none so as soon as you make out your are struggling the alarms bells go and they prefer to get whatever they can

[Fern]

My SO is a doctor, and if there's one thing i learned, it's that the stated 'cost' of a given surgery or other medical procedure is not cast in stone; in fact, it's a moving target, and the price varies depending on what kind of insurance you have, whether you have insurance at all and so yes, if you plead financial hardship i think there's a good chance you can negotiate that bill down. Let us know what happens.

[project15]

Well I don't think I have a case for financial hardship even though we're in our low/mid 20's, but I'll call them up and see if I can get a discount for paying it in full. Thanks for the tip!

[cschin4]

If you plead "financial hardship", then be prepared to provide documentation such as W2's, etc which document this. There are laws governing medical billing and many providers cannot give you a discount, even if they wanted to. Consider this. For emergency surgery, there are people who are "on call" 24 hours a day which means they are working, carrying beepers, living at the hospital "just in case". That costs money. In addition, you may have bills from multiple providers and services such as X-ray, anesthesia, the surgeon, the hospital, etc. You really need to check first with your insurance company who can then tell you what you are responsible to pay for and what was considered as payment in full.

[fairy74]

most places will give you a discount if you pay in full right away, as others have said. One local hospital I know of (unfortunately not the one in my town) has a printed policy of 50% reduction for all bills paid in full. I asked a friend who works there about it and she said the hospital had determined it was cheaper to do that then send people to collections and trying and collect small sums over time. Never hurts to ask for a discount.

[disneysteve]

My wife had an emergency appendectomy about 1.5 months ago. The insurance covered the majority of it ($27k) and now I get to come up with the remaining $1300 which is what I owe from my deductible. Yippee!

One of my co-workers said that I can haggle with the hospital to get the bill lowered, but I'm not sure that's possible. Is that something that can be done?

Absolutely. My wife had an emergency surgery to remove her gallbladder last year. Our portion of the bill was about $3,300. I called the billing department and they offered me a 35% discount if I paid the bill in full rather than financing it over time (which they offered as another option).

Never hurts to ask.

[loanstar]

am not sure if the hospital would as they don't make decisions on pricing locally. if it were private, maybe.

[project15]

I called the hospital on Friday and asked if they give a discount for paying in full. The lady said she can do 15% right there. I figured that's much better than what I expected to pay, so I took it and paid.