6 Medical Bill Tips for When You Are Discharged From the Hospital

Medical bill anxiety is frequently caused by miscommunications and misunderstanding between patients, medical providers, and health insurance companies. This article describes several general strategies that you should perform immediately after you or a family member are discharged from the hospital. These medical bill strategies will help save you time, money, and anguish down the road.

1.) ENROLL IN ONLINE ACCESS TO YOU HEALTH INSURANCE PORTAL

If you have health insurance, your insurance company provides you with excellent resources including online access to claims, EOBs, your benefit plan, their in-network provider list, and pricing tools that will tell you what your patient responsibilities will be for different types of care at different facilities. You may have to register if you have not signed on before. Registering is easy. All you need is your benefit card and your birth date.

2.) WATCH FOR YOU EXPLANATION OF BENEFITS (EOBs) ONLINE

For every service you have done, you will receive a bill from the provider and an Explanation of Benefits (EOB) from your health insurance company. An EOB is a notice from the insurance company that tells you if the insurance company paid and what is due from the patient to the provider, if anything. If you have health insurance, it is very important that you keep track of all the bills and EOBs that you receive. The insurance company use EOBs to communicate your coverage and payment to your provider. Billing representatives at the provider can almost always see your EOBs when you are on the phone with them. It is not fair if you can't see them too.

3.) DEVELOP A COMMUNICATION LOG FOR TRACKING PHONE CALLS AND STATEMENTS

If you've recently had a hospital stay or been admitted to a hospital through the emergency room, you are going to get several bills and they are not all going to be from the hospital. You are going to get bills from the emergency medicine physicians in the ER, the radiology group that read your x-rays and MRIs, the pathology group that analyzed your lab tests, the specialist physicians and surgeons who looked after you once you were admitted to the hospital, and the hospital facility itself. You may have follow-up office visits with a specialist, several types of ongoing treatments, physical therapy, or home care.

I recommend keeping a log of all telephone calls so you can accurately keep track of all dates, people you speak to, and what is discussed.

4.) RECONCILE YOU HOSPITAL STATEMENTS, INSURANCE EOBs, AND BENEFIT PLAN

Verify that the charges, discounts, and patient responsibilities match on your provider statements and EOB. Also check you benefit plan to make sure your health insurance company applied your deductibles and coinsurance correctly for the services you received.

5.) ASK INSURANCE AND HOSPITAL REPRESENTATIVES TO EXPLAIN DISPARITIES

If there are discrepancies between you statements, EOBs, or benefit plan, you can ask the provider to conference call you and your insurance company together so they can hash it out. Definitely do this if the patient responsibility on the patient statements and the EOB do not match. The provider cannot bill you for more than the patient responsibility on the EOB if it is a service covered in your benefit plan. Once the conference call starts and you have voiced your concern, just listen while they work it out.

6.) APPLY FOR FINANCIAL AID WITH THE HOSPITAL

After any disparities have been reconciled between the provider and the health insurance company, all the parties should agree on the patient liability portion. At this time you can apply for financial aid if you have not done so already. You will have to fill out a one to three page application and send photo-copies of your last two pay stubs or your last tax return. If you qualify for financial hardship, the provider may decide to adjust your balance based an income scale discount. Regardless of whether a financial aid determination is made, you can still request to pay the balance on an agreed plan. This will allow you to stretch out the payments over several months if needed.

Where Do Families Go To Pay Hospital Bills?

It may surprise you to know the United States is spending 1/5th of its total annual budget on health care, so why does it feel like scraping the bottom of the barrel sometimes when poor families look for sources to pay hospital bills? Twenty percent in health spending seems like enough, but when you compare that with Egypt for example which allocates a little more than 23% to health, it does put the whole thing in proper perspective.

You can argue that it's unfair to compare Egypt with the United States when the authoritarian state doesn't have the same budget as the most powerful (arguably) country in the world,although the US trumps Egypt in terms of population (about 312 million to Egypt's estimated 77 million) and you may have a case. Saudi Arabia would be a better model to benchmark the US against, but do you know how much the kingdom state allocates for health spending? Nearly half of its total budget!

Here's a bit of reality check: socialized medicines in socialist countries like Cuba mean their citizens have a better,capacity to pay hospital bills than the average middle class family in the US.

Nobody is suggesting that we shift our form of government to socialism but there's a lesson that needs to be learned here. The problem is the whole system is geared toward private companies making a excess profit on the insured to cover the uninsured.

The whole thing proves that having the most resources is not the single determining factor to have an efficient health care system. A 2007 study by the World Health Organization revealed that 11 rich countries are allocating less to health compared to almost 25% of impoverished countries in the world. That's something to mull over when thinking how the US health care has so much room for improvement.

Indeed, reforms are needed to make proactive choices to improve the health industry rather than always be reactionary. Millions of Americans who can't pay hospital bills turn to bankruptcy lawyers for help. Who else is helping them?

M. Baylor, of Hurst Texas, grew up with both parents as doctors. Laws concerning medical care governed his fascination as he grew up. As a paralegal in Allmand & Lee, Marcus maintains an informative blog about medical bill debt, medical litigation, and the latest in the health care reform bills and government programs.

The Secrets About Medical Bills blog seeks to address all sorts of legal questions that people have on the subject. Providing insight and alternatives for those saddled with medical debt and issues that arise through no fault of their own, Marcus seeks to bring help to people who suffer financially due to health issues. Visit Marcus's blog to find out the latest legal tactics used to fight on behalf of the patient against health insurance companies.

Unpaid Medical Bills Are Overwhelming

Unpaid medical bills are all too common in American households today. Unpaid bills from doctors or hospitals warrant numerous daily phone calls and daily mailings demanding you to pay back the money you owe. Whether you simply lack of good medical coverage or you have no medical coverage at all, everyone is in need of medical debt help.

Medium and low level income families who can get medical coverage through their employers generally do, however the balances left after the insurance company has paid their percentages remain. These balances can become the unpaid medical bills that haunt you daily if the out of pocket costs of medical coverage are still too high. Often, however, the insurance offered by employers is too expensive for many people, especially those on minimum wage salaries.

The need for medical care is an unexpected expense. Many of us don't have extra funds to compensate the difference in what the insurance companies pay. Those with no insurance do not receive the care they could if they had insurance, often leading to even greater expenses when their problems become too severe to ignore. The medical industry is aware of the high percentage of unpaid medical bills and tends to provide just enough care to readily discharge you.

There is little medical debt help available to Americans. Some private hospitals offer reduced rate programs for those with low income or no insurance coverage. Few states offer medical coverage to adults who are not senior citizens unless they are disabled or terminally ill.

People are left with the stress and worry of how they are going to pay hospital bills. Those that can afford payment plans set them up. However, depending on your amount of unpaid medical debt and on the size of your monthly payments, that may not be a valid option. The reality of the situation is that many people end up forced into a medical bankruptcy because of their tremendous amount of unpaid medical bills. Filing for bankruptcy is not what most people want to do, but many are left with no other alternative to relieve themselves of their unpaid medical debt.

M. Baylor, of Hurst Texas, grew up with both parents as doctors. Laws concerning medical care governed his fascination as he grew up. As a paralegal in Allmand & Lee, Marcus maintains an informative blog about medical bill debt, medical litigation, and the latest in the health care reform bills and government programs.

The Secrets About Medical Bills blog seeks to address all sorts of legal questions that people have on the subject. Providing insight and alternatives for those saddled with medical debt and issues that arise through no fault of their own, Marcus seeks to bring help to people who suffer financially due to health issues. Visit Marcus's blog to find out the latest legal tactics used to fight on behalf of the patient against health insurance companies.

How To Resolve Medical Bill Collections

Overwhelmed and under paid, and to top it off you have to deal with medical bill collections. No one wants to deal with collections departments, however if you know how to negotiate you may be able to resolve your unpaid hospital bills.
The goal of the collector is to recover the money owed or work out a payment arrangement. If your goal is to do the same, here are some helpful steps:

• Be polite and let the collector know you want to pay the bills, however you don't have the means for paying off medical bills balance now.
• Provide all information required to show financial hardship to qualify for a payment plan on your unpaid hospital bills.
• Make a reasonable monthly offer for the payment plan, however always give a lower number than you can afford to pay. The collector is going to request you pay more than the number you provide. Doing it this way gives you an affordable amount and gives the collector what they want.
• If possible set up post dated payments extending out three months at a time. This prevents monthly calls from the collector.
• If you have about 40% of the money you owe in total, make a settlement offer to the collector. Medical bill collections will settle your debt for a lump sum payment, less than the amount owed. If you have the means to do this follow these golden rules:
• Get the settlement offer in writing. It must include balance, settlement amount accepted and date to be paid by.
• After you pay the settlement amount follow up with collector and get a settlement paid letter, showing you satisfied the terms of the agreement. This is proof that you paid off the debt for a less amount, if future calls continue attempting to collect on the unpaid portion.

In the event that you cannot make monthly payments or a settlement on your medical bills collections, you may want to consult with a bankruptcy attorney for advise on a permanent resolution.

M. Baylor, of Hurst Texas, grew up with both parents as doctors. Laws concerning medical care governed his fascination as he grew up. As a paralegal in Allmand & Lee, Marcus maintains an informative blog about medical bill debt, medical litigation, and the latest in the health care reform bills and government programs.

Medical Bankruptcy: Fact or Fiction?

You have probably heard someone use the term "medical bankruptcy." This is a word commonly used by individuals who either are going through a medically related financial crisis, or are acquainted with someone who is facing severe medical debt. Although medical bankruptcy is not a legal term, it is a useful term to describe a financial remedy for an individual who may have reached the end of their rope because of medical debt.
Medical bankruptcy can be a misleading term because there is no legal remedy available exclusively for medical debt. In general, bankruptcy is the dissolution or reorganization of some or all of an individual's debt. When you file for any type of bankruptcy you must include all your debt. This would apply to home mortgage loans, car loans, credit cards, and medical debt. There are several types of bankruptcies, but most individuals filing a bankruptcy for medical debt will typically file for a Chapter 7 or Chapter 13 bankruptcy. A Chapter 7 bankruptcy may allow an individual to eliminate their debt, while a Chapter 13 bankruptcy can allow an individual to reorganize their debt into a 3-5 year plan, while at the same time reducing the principle on their debt.
The idea that a medical bankruptcy exists as a legal remedy may have developed because the court handles medical debt in a different way than they might other types of debt. Not all debt will receive the same treatment in court. A bankruptcy court will generally divide an individual's debt into two classes: Secured Debt or Unsecured Debt. Secured debt is the type of debt that is usually tied to assets like an auto loan or home mortgage. Unsecured Debt is usually not tied to assets, yet can often be eliminated or greatly reduced through a bankruptcy. It's important to realize that medical debt is usually classified as an unsecured debt.
While the term "medical bankruptcy" is not a legal term, it is a useful way for an individual to describe how their finances fell into chaos. An experienced bankruptcy attorney will immediately understand what a client needs when they inquire about a medical bankruptcy. A bankruptcy attorney can then inform them how a bankruptcy could be a solution to their financial hardship caused by medical debt, and even help the individual decide whether a Chapter 7 or Chapter 13 is most appropriate for their situation. Once an individual has decided the best course of action, the attorney will then lead them smoothly through the legal process of filing, and obtaining a bankruptcy.