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Consumer Action by Stacey L. Bradford (Author Archive)
Digging Out of Medical Debt
BACK IN 1994, Jinx Kincaid, now 55, was diagnosed with breast cancer. Although the Locust Grove, Va., resident has long held health insurance and her cancer is now in remission, she is still in debt. Years of costly medical treatments saddled her with more than $100,000 in medical bills.
Kincaid has since whittled that heart-pounding sum down to $8,000, thanks to financial assistance from her medical provider and the help of a credit-counseling agency. Even better: She expects to be completely debt free in two years. "I feel like now I can live to see my grandchildren get married...if I was still looking at all that [debt] in the face, I would be looking at hypertension in a bad way," she says.
Unfortunately, Kincaid's experience isn't uncommon. An estimated 77 million Americans are struggling to pay their medical bills, despite the fact that more than half of them (62%) carry insurance, according to the New York City-based nonprofit The Commonwealth Fund. And the problem is only expected to worsen as employers and insurance companies increasingly shift health-care costs onto patients.
Luckily, there are a number of ways to ease the pain of medical bills. Here are some avenues every financially-struggling patient should pursue:
Check for Errors
The first thing a patient should do is check for errors on their medical bills. Nora Johnson, a vice president with the nonprofit agency Medical Billing Advocates of America, estimates that of the thousands of inpatient hospital bills she's seen, 90% of them contain costly mistakes. One of the most common problems is duplicate billing of services under different descriptions. "An operating room charge already includes routine services, equipment and supplies," says Johnson. "But then I look at the bill and I will see [the same] routine supplies billed out again."Stay on Top of the Insurance Company
Next, make sure the insurance plan is paying its share. Many people don't realize that if there is a dispute between a doctor and a health plan, the physician will eventually just bill the patient. To avoid taking the hit, find out if any bills aren't getting paid and what the issue is, such as wrong billing code, and try to get it resolved as quickly as possible. "Ultimately, you are responsible for that bill and that could affect your credit," says Gerri Detweiler, of Credit.com, a personal finance education web site. "Sometimes you have to step in and spend a lot more time than you would like to resolve it. Sometimes you even need to pay it first and then deal with the insurance company."Negotiate
Believe it or not, medical care is negotiable. This is particularly true for patients who are paying out-of-pocket for services because they either don't have insurance or have a high deductible health plan. The bottom line is physicians and hospitals don't want to get stuck with unpaid bills so they often grant discounts to those who pay before they leave the office. (The best time to start negotiating your fees is when you call to make an appointment.) When haggling with a hospital, ask for the rate Medicare pays, which could be 50% less than the full price.
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