How to Fight an Outrageous Medical Bill – Better Blog

Great share Mikel. Thank you.
A friend here in California had to go to the state's managed healthcare office to get her insurance to pay for one of her prescriptions. She claimed that the insurance person who denied the prescription was practicing medicine without a license. She won.

I have seen this kind of thing happen more than I would like. Liability and responsibility clash with insurance legalese and obfuscation. I have seen and heard of hospitals sending people home far sooner than they should and the results are often final. Thanks, for the story and thank you Dona.

I really liked Donna's Story. My problem with medical bills today is the "break down billing" I.E. the hospital doesn't charge you anymore for the overall bill. The doctor sends you a bill for his part, the anesthesiologist sends a bill, the x-ray sends a bill, the rooming sends a bill, the medical equipment i.e. walking boots, crutches, back brace, etc send a bill, and anyone else who can bill separately sends a bill. What this amounts to is short of bankruptcy, you can't negotiate a reasonable payment. Also even with good insurance (I am a federal employee with insurance through my job), my daughter had 2 surgeries to correct perforated eardrums from multiple ear infections after the tubes in her ears failed to close after removal. For two surgeries there were multiple pre surgery visits, all billed separately, the surgeries with multiple billings from multiple departments, and follow up visits. I make about $60k a year but I'm still left owing more than $6,000 after insurance has taken care of everything that they will. Another issue is that you can never figure out what a bill will be before it comes in even if you know the Cost of something and the supposed percentage of co-pay. one other issue is that my wife is a diabetic, we joined a specific "consumer driven" health care plan because it included free diabetic supplies", a year later we were notified that the plan was going to stop covering "free diabetic supplies" and to keep that we would need to go to the "high option plan" that costs $120 a month more and loses the 2k flex account (or $2,000) that is part of the account where the first 2k in billing comes from that and I pay nothing. Due to this I spend an extra 2k (losing the flex account) and spend an additional 1.3k for a 3.3k swing for insurance that is less than I was getting last year. I feel like I'm getting raked over the coals for health care. Even better is that I am still in the National Guard and ineligible for the "Tricare option" which caps any expenses on my end at $1000 for the family for the year. The federal plan has 3k for family after each individual has met their individual caps. It's highway robbery at it finest and really TICS ME OFF!!!