Saving Money on Hospital Bills
Welcome to Saving Money with Andrew!
Last month, I wrote about my wife’s experience with a surprise medical bill for some routine tests her doctor ordered. Another situation that commonly yields a boatload of surprise bills is an unexpected hospital trip. Our last visit to the ER resulted in five random hospital bills, ranging from a few dollars to several hundred, arriving at our house over the next several weeks.
Unfortunately, unlike other countries with single payer healthcare, our system here in the US (at least for those under 65) is an absolute maze, with hundreds of different payors—private insurance, federal, state, local and other plans, individuals, etc— thousands of hospitals, and hundreds of thousands of physician practices, many with their own billing systems. Particularly during an unexpected hospital visit, patients have little ability to shop around or make sure that their health plan covers each facility or professional who treats them. As a result, it is typical for even those with good insurance to receive surprise bills.
There are many ways to deal with these. Starting in 2022, new federal legislation offers significant protections, and many states already have laws covering surprise bills. And recently, I came across a fascinating interview (and follow-up) with Jared Walker, whose website Dollar For allows you to enter your hospital’s information and look up whether it has existing policies in place requiring it to forgive or reduce any medical bills you’ve received (not just surprise bills).
Almost 60% of American hospitals are nonprofits, required to provide so-called “charity care”. On an initial look, some of these policies are far broader than one might expect. For example, one randomly chosen hospital I researched offers substantial discounts for individuals and families earning less than 400% of the federal poverty line, which works out to $106,000 for a family of four. Up to 300% (almost $80,000/yr in household income for a family of four), the hospital would waive the entire bill.
But almost no hospital will just offer you this kind of benefit—you’ll have to ask for it. That’s where sites like Dollar For, or just searching for your hospital’s financial assistance policy, come in. Good luck!
And now…Andrew’s pick of the week:
I love inspiring success stories, and few are more impressive than that of Hamdi Ulukaya, who bought a closed-down Kraft yogurt factory in upstate New York in 2005 using an SBA loan and some local business grants. By 2010, Chobani was selling $1 billion worth of yogurt per year. The New Yorker’s 2013 profile is great. Recently, Chobani filed for an IPO that may value the company at over $10 billion, making Ulukaya a multi-billionaire.
I hope this has been helpful. If you liked it, please share it on social media! Also, please send me your feedback, requests, and success stories.