Originally Posted By: Schmoe
After breast cancer/surgeries for my wife and the untold 1000's I was billed, I learned a couple of things....1st: hospitals/doctors can NOT charge you interest on any unpaid medical bills. 2nd: they will drop that amount significantly if you tell them you can afford to pay XXX right now and 3rd: As long as you're making payments, and doesn't matter how much, they can NOT come after you for payment. Trust me, it works. I've been paying 20 bucks a month for some of my wives surgeries for the last umpteen years and they can not do a thing. I'll get the occasional email that starts off like this....we understand your difficulties, but if you can pay us XXX we will close the account. Screw that, I can afford 20 a month for the rest of my life. We also have and had Federal BCBC that paid them a LOT of money, but they wanted every nickel and dime that wasn't covered with BCBS. Also, get an itemized billing for EVERYTHING. No joke, one hospital charged 50 dollars for a tube of chap stick, exact same thing is at Walgreens for 1.50.
Overbilling is quite common in that industry.The entire system lacks transparency, standardization and comprehensive patient protection. Meidical bills are more complex and confusing than a cell phone bill and that takes some doing.