According to Aetna, more than one-third of the Americans have revealed that they have received surprise medical bills. In order to avoid any kind of unexpected charges, experts always advise asking certain questions and conducting thorough research before visiting any healthcare centers or going for any treatment. Even when a person has health insurance, more individuals are realizing that it is impossible for them to afford the medical bills, especially because of the rising medical expenses. It is impossible to avoid the medical bills especially if you are going through any kind of health issue. This is why it has been observed that most of the medical bills cannot be paid on time and hence they become medical debts.
Unfortunately, people who do not clear their medical debts as well can fall in trouble because the hospital or the doctor’s office is going to turn the bills over to collection agencies, which is definitely a piece of bad news for the credit score. If you are someone who is drowning in huge amounts of medical bills, it is important to know that you have numerous options.
Given below is a list of the tips, which can help you to cope with the high medical bills.
Verify that your medical bill has not been covered by the insurance company
As soon as you receive the bill, it is crucial that you call the insurance company for verifying that they do not cover the expenses that have been listed in your medical bill. Medical providers are sometimes going to send the bill directly to you instead of sending it to the insurance company.
Looking for the items that have been priced outrageously
If you observe one box of tissues as well as aspirin pills for a lot of money, it is a good idea to call the billing department of the medical provider and ask them to lower the price of that particular product immediately or remove that from the bill. If they do not agree to budge, you might have to haggle with the insurance company. It is true that these things are going to seem extremely small, but with time, they are going to add up really fast.
Keep negotiating
If you realize that you are not able to clear your bill on a proper time, you can talk to the insurance company and try negotiating the prices or talk about a payment plan, which is going to work appropriately for you. You need to understand that they will be ready to work on a plan instead of collecting the money with the help of the collection agencies. In case if you fail to clear your medical debt, it is obvious that they are going to turn to the collection agencies. If they do so, you should prepare yourself for viewing a huge dent in the credit score. Therefore, negotiating is a great option if you cannot afford to pay the bills.
Put everything on your credit card
This is not really going to seem optimal; however, opening up new credit cards for paying the medical bills can help you to avoid debt faster. It is a lot better than having the unpaid collections hit the credit report. You need to know that in order to get a new credit card, your credit score has to be great. When you are considering the options, it is a smart idea to look for those credit cards, which offer various benefits like signup bonus or low-interest financing, on basis of the requirements that you have and your credit score.
Qualifying for Medicaid
Medicaid is responsible for offering free and low-cost care across a certain spectrum of various health expenses to those people who have a limited income as well as resources. The eligibility varies from one state to another on the basis of the income as well as the family size. It is normally offered to low-income people, children and families, pregnant women, and elderly people.
Hiring billing advocates
If you have already tried and you were unable to make any significant headway, it is a great idea to consider hiring the billing advocates. For people, who are inundated with the medical bills, because of a surgery or a long illness, billing advocates can help in sorting through the medical bills as well as negotiate on behalf of you. The charges of the advocates vary and it is your responsibility to choose someone who charges a rate, which makes sense on the basis of the total debt amount, which you should clear. It is a good idea to go through a debt settlement companies review, especially if you are interested in settling the medical debts.
Be in touch with the collection agency as well as the credit reporting agency
As soon as you have been passed on to the collection agency, it is obvious that you are going to receive numerous calls from the agent. It is a bad idea to ignore them. Take the call, talk to the collector, and try your best to negotiate a proper payment plan. Ensure that they understand the fact that you are interested in clearing the bill but due to the huge expenses, you are unable to do so. You have to be honest about the exact money that you will be capable of offering and as to how long the payment is going to last. Ensure that you are talking to the credit reporting agency also. As soon as the medical debt is clear, verify whether it has been removed from the credit report or not.
Know about the facility fees
Whenever you are visiting a health care center, the billing department of the hospital charges a huge amount of money for using their space as well as the important pieces of health equipment. You need to check your medical bill and see whether anything extra has been included in your bill. If you spot any unwanted expense, it is your responsibility to talk to the billing department immediately.
Conclusion
Medical debts can lead to numerous other problems as well. It is important that you have knowledge as to how you can avoid unwanted and surprising medical bills. Make sure that you keep the tips that have been mentioned above on your mind so that you do not face any issues.