By Bill Hennessey, M.D. – Chief Innovation & Billing Integrity Officer
Hospital MUST Provide Itemized Bills Before Payment or Collections
and This Should Be a Law in All 50 States…………
1. Zero of 5,700 hospitals provides an itemized bill.
2. Don’t ever pay a hospital bill without getting an itemized bill first.
3. Always ask for an itemized bill, which should include the 5 digit CPT billing code and the full name of each care item to be paid spelled out – abbreviations will not be accepted.
4. Even as an MD, the abbreviations used on hospital bills are unaccepted in the medical world. And the higher the care cost item, the great the intention to hide the pricing by using abbreviations no one, including MDs, will understand.
5. If we all ask for an itemized hospital bill by sending a request to the billing department, we as patients will stop hospital revenue flow by one to two months – something that would prevent them from running their price gouging businesses, which means they’d start to send out itemized bills automatically as long as ALL of us do make this request.
6. Lawmakers need to grow a spine, or perhaps at least a few vertebrae, and create a law in each state that NO hospital bill will be paid and NO patient will be sent to collections until each patient has had at least 30 days to review an itemized bill as defined above.
Most lay people can find a thing or two wrong in an itemized bill. So it’s worth it. And if you want more help to the following questions:
1. I am getting ripped off. I know it, but what is my care really worth?
2. How much lower can I get the price of this bill and be left alone by the hospital without any more harassment?
3. I don’t want to be sent to collections. How do I stop that?
4. I’d like to better understand my hospital bill, can you help me?
Then call CareGuide Advocates 888-221-1140 and ask us about our Hospital Bill Eraser program, a top selling health benefit Q4 for brokers, TPAs and health bundles.
A Member’s Journey with CAREGUIDE ADVOCATES (cgasaves.com)
