Negotiating Lower Amounts on Your Medical Bills
All medical bills can be negotiated. Period. If you cannot get satisfaction from the billing office of the provider, here are some other resources.
Your Local Medical Society
The local or state medical society will often have a reasonably honest mediation service for billing disputes. Go here for a list of medical society ethics committees that cover these issues:
https://www.ama-assn.org/ama/pub/category/13365.html
NOTE: It’s a waste of time to ask the local or state medical society to investigate a quality of care complaint. They have no power to do anything and are likely to side with the providers. They are, after all, membership societies whose members include the person you are complaining about.
A Commercial Billing Service
A service like Insnet will do billing advocacy and negotiation for about a third of the ultimate savings. Other companies, like Medical Billing Advocates of America, can help with bill review.
Useful Articles
Here is a good article in the New York Times on reviewing and negotiating medical bills.
And a blog at the NY Times that has valuable comments from consumers:
Consult with an Experienced Malpractice Attorney
If you believe you or a family member has been seriously injured from medical malpractice, medical error, or neglect by a doctor, hospital, nurse, clinic, nursing home or other health care provider, you may want to click here to contact an experienced medical malpractice attorney for a free evaluation of your case. You can also email us at info@patrickmalonelaw.com or call us at 202-742-1500 or 888-625-6635 toll-free. We will respond within 24 hours. There is no charge for our initial consultation.
