Lowest priced health care reserved for those who don't use their health insurance.

[jeffrey]

A Long Beach hospital charged Jo Ann Snyder $6,707 for a CT scan of her abdomen and pelvis after colon surgery. But because she had health insurance with Blue Shield of California, her share was much less: $2,336.

Then Snyder tripped across one of the little-known secrets of healthcare: If she hadn't used her insurance, her bill would have been even lower, just $1,054.

"I couldn't believe it," said Snyder, a 57-year-old hair salon manager. "I was really upset that I got charged so much and Blue Shield allowed that. You expect them to work harder for you and negotiate a better deal....

Many hospitals, doctors offer cash discount for medical bills - latimes.com

[disneysteve]

Even if you have insurance, you can often get a better deal simply by asking. After my wife's last surgery, once insurance paid their share, I called the hospital about our share and was immediately offered a 35% discount. I didn't even ask for it.

I would never pay any hospital bill without at least attempting to get the price knocked down. And always, always, always get an itemized copy of the hospital bill before paying it. Most bills contain errors. One time, I found that my wife had been billed twice for a piece of equipment that she only used one of. That reduced her bill by just over $1,000. Since the insurance had already paid, the hospital took that full $1,000 off of what our share would have been.

[mgkimsal]

I've heard this for years, but haven't had too much success on bigger items. That said, thankfully we haven't had many big medical items to worry about. We had an ER visit last year which came to over $4500. Our portion after BCBS was... $2400 or so. I went to the hospital on 3 separate occasions to ask someone for some sort of discount if I was to pay cash. All 3 times they said "it's already discounted - that's the price".

Now... granted, they pretty much saved someone's life, and no price is too high to put on that. But... had they knocked off a few hundreds bucks to get cash right then and there, I'd have been happy. As it was, I paid via visa, and I'm sure they had to take ~2.5% off right there for merchant fees. Had they offered $50 off, we'd have both been happy.

I've offered cash in some doctor's offices after a bill came, and sometimes was given 25% discount for cash in hand. $400 down to $300 was nice. But... it doesn't work all the time (doesn't really hurt to ask) and, thankfully, we're (so far) rarely in a position where we're dealing with medical professionals

EDIT: Ahh... I see... if you don't put the visit through insurance at all, they'll offer discounts. I get it. Well... an ER visit - they don't tell during the visit what it'll cost. I *asked*, and no one would/could tell me. So... I guess having the insurance does help some still.

[JoeP]

When insurance is involved in ANY kind of claim, you lose the ability to affect the asking price as you would if it was your own money being spent.

Friends of ours had to get zit cream for their son. That little 2 ounce tube cost something like $110, but their out of pocket was only $20, so they felt they were getting a deal. Unfortunately, the insurance company simply paid the balance because it was the asking price. That kind of behavior results in higher premiums for subscribers, and artificial demand as seen by the drug providers.