Is It Possible to Negotiate Your Medical Bills?

According to the American Medical Association, health insurers improperly processed one in five medical claims during 2010. At the same time, claim denial rates varied from 0.7 to 4.5 percent among health insurers. As thousands of Americans struggle to pay for their medical bills, many remain unaware that they can potentially negotiate treatment cost with their hospital or doctor.

Doctors often have to hire attorneys or collection agencies to get patients to pay their medical bills at the completion of treatment. If a patient pays with a credit card, the doctor is subjected to costly processing fees. As a result, patients can effectively negotiate a better deal by offering to pay for treatment upfront with cash. At the same time, patients can also negotiate better rates by shopping around and comparing hospital costs. In order to effectively compare rates, patients need to get the current procedural terminology, which is the billing code identifying the treatment procedure. This will make it easier to get comparative quotes from various doctors.