As a personal finance blogger, I have written about many ways to save money in the past. I’ve written about saving money at the veterinarian’s office, in your mailbox, and even in the shower for heaven’s sake. However, one thing I have never written about before is how to save money on medical bills.
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That’s because until recently I thought it was difficult, if not impossible.
Luckily, I have recently come to realize that there may be a few little known ways to save money on medical bills. You just have to know what they are and check it out.
3 Unique Ways to Save Money on Medical Bills
Ask Questions
Don’t be afraid to question your medical bills. As many of you know, my hubby and I adopted a newborn baby over the summer. Because adoption is such an expensive proposition, we have been heavily scrutinizing the bills that come our way. So when our daughter’s birth mother called us up a few weeks ago frantic because the hospital that she had delivered at was threatening to send her to collections, I had her fax us the bill in question. It turned out to be a bill for $776.00 from a pathologist. As in, the kind of doctor who reads biopsies and pap smears and stuff like that.
What?
I was immediately confused. As far as I was aware, our daughter had no services performed by a pathologist while she was in the hospital. So I called the number on the bill, which turned out to be the billing office at the pathologist’s office. The woman that I spoke to informed me (rather rudely) that she had no idea what services had been performed, all she knew was that someone had submitted a bill for $776 and it was her job to collect the money.
Obviously that answer was not good enough for me. 🙂 So I called the billing office at the hospital to see if they could clear it up. They informed me that they had no idea either, and told me to call the pathologist’s office back and “tell them to work a little harder” to figure out what the bill was for. I made several more calls over several more days to inquire again as to what services had been performed. No one could tell me.
My backup plan if I could not resolve the issue by talking to them was going to be to give them our daughter’s insurance information. However, our insurance loves any excuse to deny coverage for something and I had a sneaky feeling that if I gave the pathologist’s office our insurance info it would end up getting denied and then we would get stuck with a crazy bill for mysterious unknown services.
Then I got busy and was not able to call them for about a week. One week later I called and was informed that the account had been “resolved,” and there was now a zero balance on it. Once again, no one could tell me why or how. I am positive that the birth mother did not send them $776. I really have no idea what happened, but I would be willing to guess that my asking all the questions had something to do with it.
Ask for an Early Pay or Cash Discount
This one is an awesome little nugget that I happened to stumble upon by accident a few months ago. Did you know that some hospital/clinic billing offices will offer a discount if you pay cash? If you have insurance I know you’re probably thinking, “Well, it goes through my insurance and then I get a bill for whatever is not covered and THEN I pay in cash. Does that count?”
I had no idea what the answer to that question was. But I put this one to the test a couple days ago when we received a bill in the mail for $1100 for our daughter’s hospitalization in late July (she was having some breathing issues and was hospitalized overnight, I think mainly as a precaution because she was so young- only 4 weeks old at the time). The total bill was much higher than $1100, but after insurance covered everything that they were going to cover, this was the amount that was left for us to pay.
I had been tipped off by a friend over the summer that this particular hospital in our community would give a 10% discount if you paid within the first 30 days, or in cash. Of course the hospital does not advertise this! But with this knowledge I called up the billing office, and after I had given the billing person my name and the account number, I informed the rep that I had been advised to call them and “ask for the 10% early pay discount.”
And then I held my breath.
What followed was a long pause. Or maybe it wasn’t that long, but when I was waiting to hear an indication of whether I might just be able to pull off a $110 discount here, it felt like forever. Finally she came back on the line and said, “Ok, then your balance is $990.”
Woohoo!!! Ok, we still had to pay $990, but I was thrilled to learn that the 10% discount was a real thing. Don’t think I’m not going to use THAT one again in the future!! And of course I paid the balance of the bill with our Barclaycard Arrival Plus World MasterCard®, in order to earn awesome travel rewards. Don’t worry, we keep a special savings account where we sock away money for expenses like this, so we can always pay the bill in full.
Did you notice what I did there? I got a cash discount. But I didn’t pay in cash, I took the opportunity to rock out some credit card rewards. Bonus!
Employee Discount (If Applicable)
The last way that I recently learned of that you can possibly save money on medical bills is something that came up because of my own mother’s recent surgery. My mother is a nutritionist and works at a hospital, and she recently had shoulder surgery at a different hospital in the same system. She will get an additional 20% discount on her bill after insurance, simply because she works for that hospital system. Pretty sweet deal if you ask me! Those of you out there who work for any sort of healthcare system should definitely look into this one.
These are just a few innovative ways that I (and my family members) have recently used to save money on medical bills. But I want to hear from you! Are there any other ways that you’ve used to save money on medical bills?
Suggested Reading: A great book very relevant to this topic is 101 Ways to Save Money on Health Care: Tips to Help You Spend Smart and Stay Healthy
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My hospital offered a 30 percent discount if you paid your bill within 60 days when I had a baby. Since I had a 4K deductible, I saved $1,200 by paying right away!
But yes, they make the entire process a huge pain. I have uncovered mystery charges before too =/ Very frustrating.
Sweet discount!!! Definitely have to take advantage of that! It was totally a huge pain to have to keep calling them about the mystery bill, but in the end it saved $776 so was worth it.
You did what I would have done if I had been told about a hospital discount for medical bills. I don’t have any experiences yet with the US healthcare system but we recently made the switch to a health sharing initiative so I will definitely be asking for a cash discount on services and paying with the cc!
Kassandra, on days when I get frustrated with healthcare in the US, I tell my hubby that I want to move to Canada! Somehow he can always think of drawbacks to the Canadian system as well, and we never end up moving…
It boggles my mind how confusing medical bills are. I’m sure I’ve paid some bogus charges over the years just because I took what the bill said as truth. I really need to look them over more closely and ask questions if (and I will) have any.
My wife and I have been using the cash trick recently. We simply ask if there is a discount if we pay in cash. Many times there is!
The cash discount thing is so cool! I’m trying hard not think about how much money I could have saved if I would have known about it sooner. And I totally agree that medical bills are confusing to me- but I was in awe of the fact that after all those phone calls no one at the hospital or pathologist’s office could tell me what the bill was for!! Unbelievable.
I didn’t know about this cash discount and I always pay cash! I’m going to try it next time. I will say that I talk my way down in other ways when it comes to medical bills. For example, if I get preapproved via insurance ahead of time and then the bill comes back higher, I always fight to have the original price (I did this with a $600 dental bill and got it down to $500). I think if you’re nice when you do it, that helps, too.
Nice! That’s awesome that you’ve gotten the bill lowered when you’ve verified the cost beforehand. I hope the cash discount thing works for you- my only wish is that I would have found out sooner!
I’m not sure if I follow, did you say you asked for a cash discount but then proceeded to pay it with a credit card? But a credit card is not cash. Can you clarify? I must be missing something.
Yep, that’s exactly what I did. Basically, I was kind of testing to see how loosely this hospital would interpret the “cash” in cash discount. I didn’t know if they would expect me to 1) show up with a bag of greenbacks, 2) mail a check, or 3) if they would give the discount to basically anyone savvy enough to know to ask for it. Luckily for me it seems to be #3. Woo hoo!!
I’m wondering if the “cash discount” refers to a bill that is paid in full upon receipt rather than on a payment plan thereby saving the billing department man hours for continued processing and money spent on printing and sending bills.
I wish I knew some of these a few weeks ago when we had a terrible experience at the allergy doctor. There weren’t any fishy bills, but they “conveniently forgot” to tell us how much the treatment was going to cost even when we asked “how much is the treatment going to cost?” They told us a few things, but when the bill arrived with over $1,500 more charges we were taken aback. The charges were legit, but they didn’t mention them to us at all. Well, now we know to question everything and find out every single cent that the treatments will cost.
Sadly, I think that often the personnel working in clinics don’t even know how much some of their services cost! It’s usually the folks in the business office who seem to know more about the cost of things, or are at least able to put you in touch with someone who can price things out for you. I always try to figure this out before I go in for a clinic visit if I’m worried that it’s going to be spendy, because I just don’t have a lot of faith that the doctors and nurses at the clinic will have a very good idea about cost.
When I got hospitalized last June, my bill was pretty high! I was admitted for 6 days and I’m glad that medical insurance covered it all. A 10% discount is really a big amount, I don’t hear any hospital in our city that offers a 10% discount.
You may want to be check to be sure- this particular hospital that I got the discount at definitely does not advertise it! In fact, my hubby has worked there for two years and never heard a thing about it. It was a different friend who told me about it!
That first issue sounded like it was a doozy! I cannot stand receiving bills and then having no information on them. It boggles my mind how such a thing can happen. I’m glad they finally dropped it after all the calls, but it shouldn’t have taken that long to begin with! Thanks for sharing your experiences with us; I’ll definitely be keeping this in mind for the future.
It was pretty frustrating! It still boggles my mind that somehow someone submitted a more than $700 bill, to apparently be paid for by us, and NO ONE could tell me what it was for. Hello, record keeping?????
Great tips, Dee! I’ll have to keep these in mind now that I’ve got a HDHP. I had no idea that a cash discount was even an option! I had an emergency room visit a couple of years ago and I couldn’t believe how expense it was even with insurance.
The emergency room is the worst, and heaven forbid you should ever have to ride in an ambulance!! I never have, but I’ve heard horror stories of how much it can cost. It’s definitely worth checking with the billing office of any hospital that sends you a bill to see if there might be any kind of discount available!!
This year I’ve had a number of doctors appointments and one thing I’ve learned is that in the medical system it seems like the left hand doesn’t even know that a right hand exists. My doctor doesn’t talk to the specialists that he sends me to, the specialist doesn’t tell him anything back, the laboratories don’t tell anyone anything and my insurance company tries to stay as far away from it all as possible.
Each entity tries to tell me that they did their part and that’s all they will do, somehow I end up being the courier to explain to each of them what the others have done. It’s kind of insane. You have to get good at doing the legwork otherwise you get stuck with these bills since someone is too lazy to send it to someone else.
I just say pay careful attention to what comes at you since there’s a high probability that it will be wrong at some point.
“…and my insurance company tries to stay as far away from it all as possible.” Boy have I found that one to be true! And yes, I totally agree that you need to make sure you look your medical bills over carefully. Even though what you often see is a bunch of charges that you don’t understand, if you see anything that looks obviously fishy (like the charges for services that I was pretty sure my daughter hadn’t had), it definitely bears looking into.
Good tips Dee! We don’t have many medical bills…family doesn’t get sick often. So from that perspective the biggest things we are doing to save on medical bills is to be as healthy as possible. Exercise, vitamins, sleep, cleaning house, etc. Those obviously aren’t full proof but can’t hurt in keeping us from going to the doctor.
You’ve hit the nail on the head- staying well is the best way to keep medical costs down! Unfortunately it’s not all within our control, but as you mentioned there are plenty of things you can do to keep yourself as healthy as possible.
Working in health care I can tell you that the system is so complicated now that most of us can’t figure it out either so I’d always check your bills. Always ask for a discount or a cash option. I’ve done this the last 3 times for surgeries and got a 25% discount by paying day of. Then we still review the bill once again just to make sure. Hospitals are more concerned about getting some money than no money at all so billing is all over the place.
That is so awesome that you’ve gotten such a great discount by paying the day of. I’m going to have to try that the next time I go in for something scheduled like that.
Ok, I’m totally going to ask for a “cash” discount next time I have a medical bill!
Definitely do it!! By the response to this post, I can tell that the hospital in our community is definitely not the only one that has such a discount!!
Very good post. Medical bills can be quite outrageous, and there is often an opportunity to do more than just get billed and then pay it in full. Asking questions is very important, to make sure you aren’t getting billed for something for which you shouldn’t be charged. Also, paying in full in cash up front just might get you a discount, considering they don’t have to deal with defaults.
Completely agreed!
I’ve been fortunate up to this point with my insurance covering everything medical-related, but that’s probably because it’s just been for routine visits. It’s good to know there are some strategies out there in case larger bills come up. I like the cash discount one, I’ll have to remember that!
Routine well visits are usually covered except for maybe a copay- good for you for being so healthy! We definitely work hard to stay healthy, but I have a feeling that now that we are parents we will be utilizing the medical system more!!
Great advice! When I got lasik surgery last year, Mr. FW asked if there was a discount if we paid in full upfront and, sure enough, they knocked 20% off the bill! We happily paid with our Amex Starwood card and racked up hotel points! Win-win.
That’s so great!! I am loving hearing all these stories about how other people have scored discounts on medical bills!! We totally use our rewards credit cards to rack up the points when we pay medical bills. In my opinion, that’s the only good thing about paying medical bills 🙂
I always call the billing dept regarding medical bills as soon as I receive the insurance eob. Most give a twenty percent discount if you pay prior to receiving your first bill. One hospital in ohio gives a 35% discount if you call and better yet I call them the day after a hospital ER visit and they will watch for the bill and call me to get this 35% savings.
Wow, a 35% discount is AWESOME! Sadly, it took me a few years to catch on to the game of how to score discounts on medical bills. I used to just pay them from my bank account without calling at all, ugh! Now that I know better, I ALWAYS pay my bills by phone. With our healthcare center the best I’m able to score is 10% if I call within 30 days of getting the bill, but I’ve never tried calling before I even get the bill! I don’t think I have access to the EOBs, but I will definitely try that next time- I’ll just call a few days after the appointment and see what happens!
I recently had to make a trip to the ER in my home town. My sister works in the medical field and is familiar with the hospital’s policies and procedures. When checking out, they asked if I wanted to be billed or pay now. I was so sick and simply wanted to go to so I responded by saying “just bill me later.” My sister intervened and said, “she’ll pay now.” I handed her my checkbook and went to the car. She later told me if you pay charges the day of any hospital service you get 40% off! We have great insurance and a low ER co pay, but I still saved 40%! Had she not known, I would’ve simply paid my usual co pay. I’ll be asking every medical institution for a “same day pay” discount for every medical service/product provided from now on! I’ve also found that pharmaceuticals who manufacture brand name prescription drugs often offer a coupon for a low or $0.00 co pay if you have commercial insurance (not federal or state insurance.) One of my prescriptions has a $75 co pay and with my coupon I pay $5 and my other prescription has a co pay $40 co pay and I pay $0.00! That’s $115 I save every month because I used a coupon from the manufacturer!
That’s awesome Susan! Gotta love pharmaceutical coupons. And how fantastic that your sister knew about that discount! 40% is a phenomenal savings, especially off an ER visit!
Thanks for these tips! My son just went through several trips to the hospital, so I’m sure I’ll be doing battle with the billing department fairly soon. Luckily, my hubby works for the hospital, so we get a discount like your 3rd tip mentioned!
That’s awesome! Sometimes I think the employee discount can be the best one if there is any way you can possibly get it!