Medical debt is a scam. If you get handed a medical bill that you cannot pay, do not pay it.

FIOS posted about what healthcare is and why it costs so much. There are a few strategies to getting out of paying the bill. I’m gonna give you the same advice that I give to medical billing companies.<br><br>This topic may only apply to those in the US since other countries have public healthcare options and I don’t fully understand those systems.<br><br> 1. Never pay a medical bill. This is a tricky one, since most of us genuinely want to pay invoices we get in the mail. The truth is that the company that gave you a bill has no idea what you’re supposed to pay. Every single health insurance provider negotiates a different rate for services. If you get a bill from a doctor or hospital, it’s the medical biller’s job to find out what you’re supposed to pay and then send you a bill.<br><br> 2. Always pay the insurance rate. A lot of medical billers will tell you that the insurance rate is much lower than what you owe. This is a lie. Once you find out what the insurance rate is, you can pay that in full as a self-pay customer. If you do this, the biller will send you to collections and mark it on your credit score. The biller doesn’t care if they get paid $1000 or $500 for a service. They’re already paid. You’re just paying an insurance company for access to the negotiated rate.<br><br> 3. Your insurance doesn’t always pay the low rate. This is a big one. Insurance companies work to have the lowest “network rate” to keep costs low. However, they don’t always use this rate. If you get a bill from a network provider, it could already be the insurance rate. If you get a bill from out of network, it almost always is not the insurance rate. The problem here is that the patient has no way of knowing what their insurance company paid or if that was the right amount.<br><br> 4. The patient has no way of knowing if they got the right bill. Insurance companies have whole teams that verify medical bills and make sure they are correct. There’s an entire job field around this. When you get a bill in the mail, it could be wrong. You just paid for a doctor and his team to do a service, and then you paid the insurance company to verify the bill. But you didn’t actually get the service or the verification. When you open your bill, you have no idea if you got the right bill, the wrong bill, or if the biller already got paid by your insurance. Your best bet is option 1.<br><br> 5. You can always appeal. If you get sent to collections, appeal. You can dispute the amount and even your insurance company can help you dispute. If you have good insurance, they will fight on your behalf. If you have bad insurance, you’re gonna have to fight yourself. (See #3) A good strategy is to tell the insurance company that you’re being threatened with collections for an amount that is not correct. They will usually fix it for you.<br><br> 6. Medical debt is not real. If you are sent to collections and marked with bad credit, this can be disputed and removed. In reality, the only recourse a medical biller really has is sending you to collections. They cannot sue you and they already got paid by the insurance company. <br><br> 7. Never pay collections. Seriously. Do not EVER pay a collections agency. They do not care about your credit score or your debt to the biller. They only care about money. The biller already wrote off the bad debt, and the collection’s agency bought it at pennies on the dollar. They want their money back, but even if you pay in full, the collections agency will not remove the bad credit mark. You wasted your money.<br><br>Subreddit, never pay a medical bill. You don’t owe it.<br><br>Edit:<br>Wow, thanks for the awards guys and gals. I appreciate it! I’m glad people are reading the post. There have been some questions and topics that have come up, so I’ll try to clarify some things.<br><br> 1. Medical billers usually don’t sue people. It is so expensive and time-consuming to sue a customer. They would much rather send someone to collections than go through this process. Medical billers have a limited amount of time to do this and usually miss that window anyway.<br><br> 2. I’m not advocating that people don’t pay bills. People want to pay bills. If you get a bill that says $500, you can confidently pay $500. The problem is that you don’t know what you should pay. I’m not saying that patients are bad and don’t want to pay. I’m saying that patients don’t know how much to pay.<br><br> 3. I’m not saying that all medical billers are liars or crooks. All industries have bad people. I have personally worked in medical billing and know that it is a job. I also know that there are entire companies that buy up bad debt and make money off of it.<br><br> 4. Socialized medicine is the fix for this. It’s one of many reasons we need socialized medicine. Getting a bill in the mail should not happen in any circumstance. We shouldn’t need to panhandle for life-saving medical care.<br><br> 5. A lot of people have employees AP and AR in their name. These are someone else’s employees that the biller pays to do their job. This is so common that a lot of medical billing companies don’t even have employees. The biller has a contract saying that a percentage of claims will be paid, and the AP/AR employees are just contractors.<br><br> 6. The insurance rate isn’t always the best deal. I mention this in the comments, but some insurance rates can be expensive for some services. If you do have insurance, don’t just pay the insurance rate! Ask the biller to see if you should pay the insurance rate or the self-pay rate. <br><br>7. Some states have laws banning surprise billing. However, it is very hard for the patient to know if they have been “surprise billed”. This is when you get a bill from a provider that is out of network and not covered by your insurance.<br><br>8. Some people have said that you should only see network providers. In reality, this is not something you can always control. Let’s say you get into an accident and need immediate medical care. You’re not gonna hop out of the ambulance and check if the hospital is in-network. <br><br>Edit #2:<br>Wow, this blew up while I was at work. Thanks again, kind strangers!<br><br>There’s a lot of questions in the comments and I’ll answer them as best I can. Feel free to DM if you need personal advice.<br><br> 1. Most people have never heard of this. Most people who do this have worked in billing or have a medical billing background. In my personal experience, most people just want to pay their bills. They feel bad when they can’t pay and get sent to collections. In reality, the biller doesn’t care if they get paid. They already got paid. They are just trying to get more money from you.<br><br> 2. I’m not saying all medical bills are fake. I’m saying 100% of medical bills have incorrect information. It’s the job of the biller to get that information corrected. If you get a bill in the mail, there is always incorrect information on it.<br><br> 3. I’m not saying patients are bad. I’m saying that patients are treated badly by the US healthcare system. Your insurance is supposed to fight on your behalf. Your insurance is also supposed to have the lowest network rate. The truth is that insurances have many network rates for the same service and will pay whatever they want.<br><br> 4. I’m not saying all billers are liars who want to screw patients. I’m saying that what I do for a living can be used against patients. The system is fucked up. We all know this.<br><br> 5. I do have sympathy for doctors and hospitals. Let’s be real though. If you’re billing a patient, you already got paid. You don’t care if the patient pays. It’s just as much work to send someone to collections as it is to remove the bad credit mark.<br><br>6. I do feel bad for anyone who has gotten medical debt. I’m sorry if what I posted caused flashbacks or was triggering. I do think that patients should be protected. I also think that the vast majority of people wouldn’t care if they got a bill they couldn’t pay and just paid it.<br><br>7. Please stop sending me DMs of your bills. I don’t have the time to respond to everyone, and even if I did, I don’t have all of the information. The best advice I have for you is to call your insurance company and ask for help.