Are You Being Charged Incorrectly
After a hospital stay, it is a good idea to review your bill line by line. There are often errors made and they can be corrected, especially if you approach it in a positive manner. We all have heard the horror stories of $75 aspirins being administered, and it is those stories that cause some distrust in hospitals.
Recently, as a young nurse was combed through the bills for her husband’s recent hospital stay, she found that there were charges for a drug that should have been $80, but was charged incorrectly at $875. There was also an administrative error which caused her husband to be hospitalized an extra day, and she knew from her hospital experience that they didn’t have to pay for additional unneeded care because of a medical mistake. She also discovered a charge for administering one medication 7 times a day, when the doctor’s prescription was only 4 times per day. In all, she uncovered $7000 worth of over charges on her bills.
So when you receive a hospital bill, it is a good idea to sit down and review it very carefully. If you have questions, sit down with your doctor instead of the hospital billing department. The billing department is clerical by nature, and they don’t always have an accurate history of the care that was actually provided. Make sure you ask questions.
If you are unable to find satisfactory answers to your questions, you do have other resources. There are patient advocate groups available to help. And don’t hesitate to contact the insurance commissioner in your state if you are having issues with your insurance company.
Medical insurance is there to protect us in case we need it. And hospital stays are unpleasant enough without having to deal with a bill laden with codes and numbers. The hospital can decipher this for you and they will. We know medical bills can be filled with errors and you should not have to pay for things you did not receive. So do your homework, put a little effort into it, and you’ll find that the resolution of the errors will work out as it should.
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