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Did you know you could negotiate ob/gyn bills or pediatrics bills?
Fatima Medhikarimi , Atlanta-based publisher of the popular site, The Shopping Queen, wrote a guest post for Baby Cheapskate last summer in which she shared some of her secrets for saving on medical bills. Her tips included knowing your insurance policy backwards and forwards,and asking your doctor for a cash discount and payment options.
Last month, Fatima appeared in the pages of SmartMoney magazine, describing her experience giving birth without maternity coverage. In the article, Under the Knife: Cutting Medical Bills, she tells readers how she successfully negotiated her medical bills of almost $9000 down to a more manageable level.
The SmartMoney article makes the case that haggling with medical professionals is gaining acceptance in a world where the average family could buy a car with the money they spend every year on insurance premiums and out-of-pocket health care expenses. SmartMoney's advice? Ask for discounts before the bills come in, pay in cash up front to provide incentive for discounts, and do your homework so that you know what procedures, etc. should cost.
Learn More:
Learn How to Negotiate Your Medical Bills
How to Negotiate Anything
5 Ways to Lower Your Medical Bills
Readers, have you ever asked your doctor to reduce your medical bills? Were you successful?
May 11, 2008
Want Cheaper Medical Bills? Just Ask
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7 comments:
This is absolutely true. I'd read about it many times, so when my fertility treatments weren't covered by insurance, I asked my doctor's office for a discount and they took off 30%. I asked them to lower the charges to what their agreement with the insurance company was, but they wouldn't go quite that low. (My fertility treatments were relatively minor and inexpensive, just some drugs and ultrasounds, no IVF or anything invasive.)
Off topic, but today only you can get a free 8x10 at Snapfish with the code HIMOM. I still had to pay shipping, which was just over $1.
I have a colleague who calls around to different dentists and tells them what her insurance will cover. She asks them to take just that and if they say, "No." She moves on. She always finds someone.
My uncle has no dental insurance and his dentist gives him 1/2 off for paying with cash up front.
My doctor's office actually has a sign posted that says "If you have no insurance or need assitance in paying, please let us know, we will work something out." The lady that actually cleans the office does it for free medical care for her and her family.
My mom has no dental and found a dentist that charges her less than half the billing cost and lets her do a payment plan.
Thank you for this post. You helped me better understand this idea. It is an issue that is close to home (as I'm sure it is for a lot of people). I was inspired to write about this issue on my blog today and, since you were the final push, or, rather, the inspiration, that got me to do it, I wanted to share it with you:
http://maternityshare.com/2008/05/cheaper-medical-bills-for-reals/
Thank you, Baby Cheapskate.
Your friend,
~Christine
You are so right, it never hurts to ask. I got out of buying a lot of prescription drugs that way too. Honesty is always the best policy, even when it comes to your physician!!
Great topic, Angie!
With my first daughter, my husband was out of work right after she was born, so even though we had insurance, we had zero income to pay the payments on what we did owe. I thoroughly expected to make all the payments, but needed the monthly payments to be lower. B/c they have a set limit to what they want their payment plans to be at, they couldn't lower the payments for me unless I filled out a special application for them, which I did. During the processing time for this application, I didn't pay anything. Then, a couple of months later, I received a letter telling me that I qualified (b/c of our low income at the time) to get over $3000.00 forgiven from what I owed! I hadn't even asked for any forgiveness, but they offered it to me!
More recently, in a different city and with different jobs and different insurance, my husband had to have some expensive medical treatments and our deductible was so high, that I picked up patient financial services pamphlet at our medical center and filled out their application. I just heard back from them 2 months ago that they had forgiven 85% of what we owed AND what we would incur in costs every time he goes in for the REST OF THE YEAR! What a HUGE blessing!
Most hospitals have an office of patient care or patient assistance. They base their help on your income and assets and other criteria. It doesn't hurt to ask.
We saved over 5000.00 total b/c of medical discounting!
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