How You Could Save Money on Your Hospital Bills

This is not one of my typical fix-it posts but I thought what I recently learned about medical bills and hospitals was worth sharing.

Our Situation: Hospital Bills from the Delivery
My wife had a baby a couple months ago and finally the bills have gone through insurance and we are beginning to receive them.  We have Aetna insurance.  I always check online to see what Aetna paid and to make sure it lines up with what I think they should be paying.  At this point in the year they are paying 80% of the agreed upon rate.  I had one bill that reflected us paying 20% of the full amount (verses the agreed upon rate) so I called Aetna and then called the hospital.

The Hospital Offers Me a Discount
When I was talking to the hospital they asked me if I wanted to start a payment plan.  I know that hospitals can’t charge interest and I’ve paid off a bill before with a payment plan but I wanted them to send me a corrected bill before I moved forward with it.  Then the lady mentioned to me that they were giving 25% off if I paid it in the next 10 days.  I’d never heard of such a thing but since we do happen to have the money I decided to pay it off right away and save 25%, which in this case was over $100.  Before I hung up I remarked to the lady that I was surprised to get a discount and she remarked that it was good that I called.  I pondered that idea in my head.

You Have Not Because You Ask Not
I had a bill at another clinic.  Typically, if everything looked good, I would just pay it outright but after what I had just experienced I decided to call them and ask them if they would give me a discount too.  I called them up and asked them about a discount if I paid it off and they offered me a 10% discount.  I responded by telling them that the hospital just gave me a 25% discount.  The clinic responded by offering me the 25% discount as well.

Lesson Learned: Ask For a Discount
These interactions with the billing departments of these two medical clinics gave me a behind-the-scenes picture of what I believe is how hard up hospitals and clinics are to collect on their bills.  I was able to get a 25% discount just for asking and they were more than willing to give it to me if I’d pay my bill.  I don’t know how much this has to do with it being the end of the year and that may be a big factor, my timing.  But I’d encourage everyone to look over their medical bills carefully, ask a lot of questions from their insurance, and ask for a discount–you never know how much money you might save!  I’ve never been so tickled at myself after getting off the phone because of what I’d accidentally saved.

4/7/2014 Update
We just received our portion of a medical bill that amounted to $327.60.  Just on a whim I decided to call up the Patient Billing Services number on the bill and ask them if they give any discount for paying the bill in full.  The representative replied, “We can only give you a 5% discount if you pay the bill in full with a credit card.”  Guess what I did?!  Used my HSA credit card and paid it in full (just like I was going to anyway) and got a 5% discount.  That is $16.38 saved that we would have spent if we had not just asked.  Make sure you ask guys!!!