I have had two hospitalizations this year. I thought I had the best health insurance in the world and that once I hit my deductible, everything else would be covered. Boy was I wrong!

On one overnight hospital stay, which did in the use of the surgical facility as well as a semi-private room, my hospital bill was $72,000 (I still don’t believe they could charge this kind of money!)

My insurance company negotiated with the hospital and between that negotiation and what they allowed they, attempted to bill me almost $10,000, which was after I met my deductibles. I further negotiated with the insurance company and got the bill down to $7,000.

I still thought this was outrageous so I decided I would see what the hospital would do for me. I went and visited the administrative offices at the hospital and learned that they do negotiate for cash.

Here are three tips if you find yourself in this situation.

1. Contact the hospital’s social worker or patient representative. This is the person who assists patients with financial issues. Ask them to review your bill and your insurance coverage. Ask if there can be any further adjustments to the bill.

2. Cooperate if the hospital asks you for any financial information. The more cooperative you are the better the chance you will be able to work out a discount.

3. If you have the money, ask how much for cash? How much would they discount the bill if you paid it in full today? I ended up with another 40% off the final bill, reducing the total down to $4200

Don’t be afraid to stand up for your rights!

This entry was posted on Friday, November 7th, 2008 at 4:00 am and is filed under General Interests. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.