Finance and Budget Tips

finance, budget, forex trading, economic and personal finance budget planner

Are You Being Charged Incorrectly

Having medical insurance is no guarantee you won’t be over billed. Many are finding inaccuracies in the bills they receive from hospitals & caregivers. The problem is less uncommon than one would think. It could be sloppiness or it could mean the right hand isn’t talking to the left hand. Hospital billing procedures often do leave a lot to be desired since there are so many involved in the patient’s care. But errors do occur & it good idea to do a line by line review of your hospital bill.

In one recent example a young couple he a doctor & she a nurse had a bad billing experience. The husband had been hospitalized for a short time & the wife began to review the bill line by line. She discovered charges for administering one drug 7 times per day when it was only prescribed 4 times per day. The hospital had also made an error which caused her husband to have to stay an additional day. Because of her nursing background she knew she didn’t have to pay for the extra day because of a medical mistake. She also found a charge for $875 for one drug that she knew should be around $80. Someone likely placed a decimal in the wrong place. Overall she found nearly $7000 of overcharges on the bill.

If you have recently had a hospital stay it good idea to make sure it itemized & then sit down & review it. If you have questions sit down with your doctor & not the billing department of the hospital. They work is clerical & they don’t always have the correct history of your care. And no matter what 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.

By having health insurance we want to be taken care of in case we need it. There is no need to be intimidated by a bunch of codes & numbers on the bill. The hospital can tell you in words what all of them mean. Medical bills can be filled with errors & you certainly don’t want to pay excess charges. Do your homework & you’ll get the corrections made that you need.

It may seem difficult to find affordable individual health insurance now a days however there is solutions. log onto www.individualhealthquotes.com & you can obtain health insurance quotes from multiple companies at one time.


No Comments

(required)
(will not be published) (required)