Could calling your hospital billing office save you?

By Erin Duffy, University of Southern California Disagree with that medical bill? It might be worth calling your hospital billing office. damircudic/E+ via Getty Images What do you do when you disagree with or can’t afford a medical bill? Many Americans struggle to pay medical bills, avoid care because of cost worries or forgo other needs due to health care cost burdens. It can be hard to understand what you’re being charged for on a medical bill. I’m a health policy and economics researcher who studies insurance and out-of-pocket health care expenses, and even I sit at my kitchen table trying to wrap my head around bills and explanations of benefits. In my newly published research, I surveyed a nationally representative sample of 1,135 American adults – a subset of participants from the University of Southern California’s Understanding America Study – to find out how they handle troubling medical bills. I learned that advocating for yourself can pay off when it comes to medical bills, and you may be missing out on financial relief when you don’t pick up the phone. Squeaky wheel gets the grease My team and I found that 1 in 5 patients had received a health...