I just received a detailed bill from a hospital... $26 for a single pair of latex surgical gloves, $357 for a vaccine that's $15 in a pediatricians office, and the list goes on and on.  I am getting gouged.  How do I fight this?  Can I do it legally ?

[b]ALWAYS[/b] check detailed bills for charges for services not done or items not used, as well as double entries of items. If Federal funds (such as MediCare) are used to pay for the service it can get messy for the over-charging hospital.

True story. When I was eight or ten, one of our  dogs got jumped by a pack of wild mutts and tore up. We took him to the vet, and he was eventually put down. Vet charged us [b]$3.00[/b] for a 33 gallon trash bag he put the body in. This was at a time when you could buy a box of twenty for like 49 cents.....

Scott

Make shure that if you have any insurance that you only pay the difference in the ductible and the contracted amount between the insurance company authorizies.

example

doctor charge 100.00

insurance contracted amount 40.00

insurance covered 20.00

you only owe 20.00 more dollars, not the 80.00 that the doctor will send you the bill for. he he ha ha seen it happen just once to many times.

Good Luck

Badredfish [devil]

I don't think there's much you can do other than ask them if they'll settle for less.  The last couple of times I had to take my wife to the emergency room, they wouldn't do anything other than tell me to take her to her doctor the next morning.  The first time, she was too weak to stand (due to low hemoglobin), and the second time she had a stroke and couldn't even remember my name or the alphabet.  Each time cost us over $500. Several hours of waiting for nothing other than a large bill is very frustrating.  They wanted her doctor to refer her.  They wouldn't admit her directly.

After I got the two bills (got them the same day over a year later!), I called them about the cost for what (little) they did.  I got nowhere.  When I called a different office to arrange payment plans, I said I could afford $200 now, and would have to get back to them on the rest.  They offered (I didn't even ask) to settle both bills for that.  It doesn't hurt to ask.z

They overcharge those who can and will pay to cover the operating costs of the hospital due to the large amount of non-payment cases.  It's like paying a little higher for a pair of sweat pants at Wal-Mart because they lose money on shoplifted items, except the math is astronomically different, and Wal Mart is not REQUIRED to provide goods for people who can't pay.