It happens every day – people get outrageous hospital charges and bills in the tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars for their medical care. And we fight these outrageous hospital bills every day all day. We’ve saved patients millions of dollars so far.
In the past, we’ve given examples of other crazy medical bills we’ve successfully fought. Here are five more examples of the outrageous hospital charges we’ve seen and have helped patients fight below.
Example 1: $340k in savings off an outrageous hospital bill
A woman spent a couple of weeks in the hospital including multiple surgeries and days worth of intensive recovery. While she had insurance, it was a limited benefit plan – a “health insurance” plan that maxed out at $25k in total payments per year (Side note – Limited Benefit Plans are generally a scam and don’t cover anything. We’ve written about what to look for to make sure you don’t end up with a limited benefit plan here.)
When the woman and her husband received an outrageous hospital charge of nearly $500k they called resolve.
Resolve got to work analyzing the bill like we do for all out of control hospital bills. Because the patient had a limited benefit plan, we knew that we’d have to go directly to the hospital to negotiate the medical bill. On top of that, the patient had initially been denied financial aid because of family income.
However, our fair price analysis determined that the price of these procedures should be around $200,000 rather than the $500,000 being charged. We got to work negotiating with the hospital and were able to get them to take $340,000 off the bill, a savings of nearly 70% for this family.
Example 2: Nearly $85k saved on a bill of over $130k
Another outrageous hospital charge we’ve worked with was when a retired sales executive was involved in a serious accident where he had to be airlifted to the hospital for emergency surgery. Unfortunately his new insurance policy hadn’t started yet when he got into the accident so he was left holding a $130k bill, including a $50k bill from the air ambulance company for a 20 minute ride.
Resolve jumped in and fought to lower the hospital bill for this patient. We negotiated with both the air ambulance company and the hospital that performed surgery to lower bills across the board. In the end we were able to bring this outrageous hospital bill down to well within the fair price range and save over $85k.
Example 3: $25k bill reduced down to $250, a savings of 99.9%!
An Indianwoman was hospitalized in the US while visiting her children. She had travel insurance so didn’t think too much of it. However, she was completely shocked when she found out that her travel insurance was refusing to pay and she was left with a large hospital bill of over $25k!
Resolve sprang into action and began working on the woman’s behalf to help her lower these outrageous hospital charges. We fought the travel insurance company and the hospital over these charges. In the end, we were able to reduce a $25k hospital bill down to just $250. That’s a savings of 99.9% on her hospital bill!
Example 4: $50k additional bill reduced down to under $5k (90% savings)
A man had a pre-negotiated “cash pay” price for a surgery with a hospital that included the surgery and 5 days in recovery for $40k – which he paid upfront. Unfortunately his recovery took longer than expected and he stayed an extra day in the hospital. The hospital then stuck him with an additional $50k hospital charge claiming that he had broken the terms of his agreement and because of this they were entitled to the non-negotiated rate (Side note: Read any prearranged agreement with hospitals very closely).
The hospital hounded the poor man for months attempting to collect this additional $50k hospital bill. Not knowing what to do, he reached out to Resolve for help with his outrageous hospital bill. We went to task with the hospital and forced them to accept the medicare rate for the extra day in the hospital, and no more. This saved the man 90% off what the hospital originally intended to collect.
Example 5: $100k savings off a $130k bill
The final example of outrageous hospital charges we’ve helped to resolve was when a California man went in for emergency surgery just as his insurance lapsed. The hospital discounted the bill from the original price of over $200k down to $130k, but this was still far too much for him to afford. While he had some savings, he was also nearing retirement and this would have threatened his ability to retire.
The hospital said that he wouldn’t qualify for financial aid, despite the $130k outrageous hospital bill being more than his annual salary.
Unsure of what else to do, he turned to Resolve’s medical bill advocates for help.
Resolve went directly to the CFO of the hospital to present the man’s case. Were we able to secure an additional $100k in savings off these outrageous hospital charges. (We negotiated the prices down to the Medicare rate, which is generally less than what it costs the hospital to perform their services).
Conclusion
Are you wondering how to deal with outrageous hospital bills yourself? You don’t have to do this alone. Instead, you can get the help of medical billing advocates and experts.
If you need help with outrageous hospital bills – get in touch with our team at Resolve. Call us at 877-245-4244 or schedule a Free Consultation with one of our medical billing experts. Additionally, we’ve written a completely free comprehensive guide to lowering your medical bill.
Braden founded Resolve after experiencing first hand how unfair the system is for patients. Prior to Resolve, he built and ran Operations for a renewable energy company and then built and ran Product, Growth, and Operations for a VC-funded edtech company. He received his MBA from Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business and BA in Philosophy from the College of William and Mary. When not trying to lower healthcare costs he can be found outdoors mountain biking, skiing, or hiking with his dog.