Help with Unexpected and Expensive Medical Bills

Take these steps when you get an unexpected or expensive medical bill.

1. Contact the sender and request an itemized bill.
2. Contact your insurance provider and find out if the sender is in your network. Ask your health insurance provider to explain your bill(s).
3. If the bill is from a recent trip to a hospital emergency department contact your state health insurance department to find out the state laws against balance billing. Here’s the link to a list of state insurance regulators from the National Association of Insurance Commissioners: http://www.insurance.naic.org/state_web_map.htm

Many more options for handling unexpected and expensive medical bills are detailed in Lower Your Healthcare Bills and Medical Bill Financial Help.

These options include;

1. Finding mistakes.
2. Disputing the charges.
3. Applying for charitable care.
4. Appealing for insurance coverage.
5. Negotiating payment discounts and plans.
6. Public Funding

There are also free medical bill review and advocacy services available.

Medical bill review company CoPatient put together a step-by-step medical bill payment guide that’s very easy to use. You can also get free help from aPatientsPlace.com experts.