Supriya Ghosh (Editor)

Medical bill advocacy

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Medical-bill advocacy is the name generally attributed to the industry that has developed in response to a growing problem of erroneous charges on medical bills. According to the Medical Billing Advocates of America (MBAA), as many as 9 out of 10 bills from hospitals and medical providers include errors that may erroneously inflate the cost of actual healthcare received.

Contents

Overview

Medical bill advocates help patients find errors in their bills, negotiate with their insurer to appeal coverage denials, and/or negotiate lower fees with their medical care providers.

Common medical bill errors

Examples of common medical bill errors identified by advocates include the following:

  • Duplicate billing: charging twice for the same service, drugs, or supplies
  • Typos: entering incorrect billing codes or dollar amounts
  • Canceled work: charging for a test your doctor ordered, then canceled
  • Upcoding: inflating a charge, for example, a doctor prescribes a generic drug, but the bill lists a costlier, brand-name drug
  • Inflated operating room fees: charging for more time than the anesthesiologist's records show was used.

    • References

    Medical-bill advocacy Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA