Insurance advocacy

Thu, Feb 20 2020, 10:26 am

Hi! Does anyone know of an organization that helps you knock down your medical bills? I know RCCS does it for cancer patients, but I need someone for general medical bills. We just had a baby B"H and have horrible insurance so want to try to knock it down a bit....We are not eligible for charity care, but a $7k bill is just too much...

amother

Firebrick

Thu, Feb 20 2020, 10:34 am

LO wrote:

I don't know of an organization, but I would really like to help, as I got help from this website when I needed it.
I learned a lot since then.

Should your bill really be 7k? (Of course it's possible!) But sometimes your charged when you shouldn't be.

Are you familiar with your plan?
With your coverage?
With your deductible and your out of pocket costs?
Did you compare the bills and all the expenses match up?

If the bill is right:
Even if you are not eligible for charity care.. can you reach out to the hospital anyways? Maybe they'll make a payment plan for you?

My obgyn charged me for a lot of things they shouldn't have.
I went back and forth between them and my insurance company until It was sorted out. It took months.

Hatzlacha!

amother

Lilac

Fri, Feb 21 2020, 3:16 pm

Why do t you just speak to somebody in rccs and ask them if they can just tell you what to do or if they can give you a contact person maybe they know who works at that insurance company. Maybe with their guidance you can do this on your is

amother

Slategray

Fri, Feb 21 2020, 3:41 pm

Unfortunately I'm not sure if there is anything you can do. If you have a high deductible/high co - insurance then you end up with a lot of medical bills. I have never been able to get medical bills reduced, as it was always legitimately part of my out of pocket expenses. The only time I had medical bills waived was when it was due to error, for example billing twice for the same thing.

I would suggest learning the details of your plan and what exactly your out of pocket responsibility is. Then go over all the claims and make sure there are no errors.

But yeah I feel for you, medical care costs so much. I once ended up with thousands of dollars in medical bills after a miscarriage because I needed two d&c's and my plan had a very high deductible.

Sun, Feb 23 2020, 10:22 am

Thanks for your replies, everyone. I am just not sure how to check if everything makes sense...I mean if there is a double charge, than that's obvious, but otherwise how do I know if they are charging too much for use of the room, doctor's fees, etc? They all look legitimate in terms of description...

amother

Firebrick

Sun, Feb 23 2020, 10:51 am

LO wrote:

Start with the following pieces of Info:

Do you have a deductible?
If yes, how much is your deductible?
Do you have to pay coinsurance? If yes, how much?
What does your plan charge for hospital stay? Flat fee? Per day? Deductible and conisurance?

Gather this Info and take it from there.

Sun, Feb 23 2020, 10:57 am

I know I have a deductible and coinsurance, so that all makes sense. our out of pocket maximum is $10k so we have coinsurance until we meet that... Sad

Will look into how hospital stays are charged..

amother

Slategray

Sun, Feb 23 2020, 11:35 am

LO wrote:

It's not really possible for them to charge "too much" for use of the room, doctors fees etc. They are going to charge whatever their prearranged fee is according their contract with your insurance company.

Honestly I highly doubt they made any mistakes. It's all computer systems and there usually are not errors. Like I said before, I only had once that there was an error. And unfortunately I have lots experience with this because I've had lots of medical bills due to health issues, IF, and pregnancy/childbirth. If your max out of pocket is 10000 then it makes sense to have 7000 worth of bills. Having a baby is really expensive

I'm not trying discourage and you can definitely try to go over all of it. I just don't know if it's really worth driving yourself crazy over it when the charges are probably legitimate.