Medical-bill advocacy
Medical-bill advocacy is the name generally attributed to the industry that has developed in response to a growing problem of erroneous charges on medical bills. According to the Medical Billing Advocates of America (MBAA), as many as 9 out of 10 bills from hospitals and medical providers include errors that may erroneously inflate the cost of actual healthcare received.[1]
Overview
Medical bill advocates help patients find errors in their bills, negotiate with their insurer to appeal coverage denials, and/or negotiate lower fees with their medical care providers.[2]
Common medical bill errors
Examples of common medical bill errors identified by advocates include the following:
- Duplicate billing: charging twice for the same service, drugs, or supplies
- Typos: entering incorrect billing codes or dollar amounts
- Canceled work: charging for a test your doctor ordered, then canceled
- Upcoding: inflating a charge, for example, a doctor prescribes a generic drug, but the bill lists a costlier, brand-name drug
- Inflated operating room fees: charging for more time than the anesthesiologist's records show was used.[3]
See also
- BillCrew
- Medical bills
- CoPatient
- DisputeBills
References
- ↑ "Medical Billing Advocates of America - Home Page". Retrieved 2009-10-13.
- ↑ Konrad, Walecia (2009-08-08). "A Guide Through a Medical Wilderness". The New York Times. Retrieved 2009-10-13.
- ↑ "Help for Medical Billing Errors". Retrieved 2009-10-13.
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 4/7/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.