Check your medical bill for errors (2024)

FAQs

Check your medical bill for errors? ›

Call the Medical Provider

In order to dispute a medical bill, you'll first need to contact the provider. Ask them to explain any errors you found, and request that they correct the bill.

Medical billing errors are common and costly. This can be financially crippling from the patient's perspective, with one-third of American adults admitting to receiving unexpected bills and many struggling to pay them.

If you believe there has been a billing error, you must give written notice to the creditor of the error within 60 days of receiving the bill with the error. The creditor must respond to you within 30 days. The creditor then has two billing cycles, but not longer than 90 days, to resolve the dispute.

A new report from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau shows inaccurate medical bills are causing people to rack up a massive amount of debt — to the tune of $88 billion a year — and it's affecting their credit.

Incorrect billing and inaccurate coding can lead to disputes between patients and healthcare providers. Patients who are incorrectly billed may become frustrated and lose faith in their healthcare providers, damaging the professional relationship and potentially leading them to seek care elsewhere.

The credit card company must acknowledge receipt of your dispute notice within 30 days, unless it corrects the bill within that time. Then, within two billing cycles—but not more than 90 days—the company must either correct the error or explain why it believes the amount on the statement is correct.

Communication problems, both vocal and written, are one of the most common causes of medical errors. Miscommunication can occur between a doctor, nurse, a lab technician, or any other medical professional. Many patients never learn basic information about their illness and treatment.

For example, you could have received the lowest level of emergency room services but be billed at the highest level. This is an illegal, fraudulent practice, and you should ask your health care provider to correct the charge immediately.”

How do you argue down medical bills? ›

The Fair Credit Billing Act is designed to protect consumers from unfair billing practices. The act provides a path for consumers to dispute billing errors or unauthorized charges and requires that credit issuers investigate and resolve them.

Whether you're on the sending or receiving end of an invoice discrepancy, the best approach is usually direct, honest communication. Reach out to your customer or vendor and let them know what happened as soon as possible so you can work through the inaccuracy and resolve the dispute.

If you are covered under Medicare, federal law states that hospitals must cover the costs for care due to certain medical errors. In many cases, the patient may have to pay for costs themselves – or file a case or lawsuit against the hospital for malpractice. Medical malpractice cases can be long and complex.

Your health insurer will review your complaint and should tell the provider to stop billing you. If you do not agree with your health insurer's response or would like help from the California Department of Insurance to fix the problem, you can file a complaint with us online or by calling 1-800-927-4357.

Abuse describes practices that may directly or indirectly result in unnecessary costs to the Medicare Program. Abuse includes any practice that does not provide patients with medically necessary services or meet professionally recognized standards of care.

To dispute a charge, send a letter to your credit card company's address for billing inquiries or errors. Your credit card company will investigate the dispute. If it resolves it in your favor, it will remove or fix the charge.

Make a copy of the page(s) where the error(s) occur. If it's a simple correction, then you can strike one line through the incorrect information and handwrite the correction. By doing so, the person in the provider's office will be able to find the problem and make the correction easily.