Here's an order from the doctor you may welcome: Don't pay your medical bill right away.
The American Medical Association, the largest association of physicians, estimates that more than 7 percent of bills paid by private health insurers have errors.
The National Health Care Anti-Fraud Association estimates that tens of billions of dollars are squandered annually on fraudulent medical bills because of "a very small minority of dishonest health care providers."
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Sometimes the errors are because of complete accidents, such as a name misspelling or a mistaken identity. As the Associated Press highlighted in an article on the subject, it's not unheard of for a man to receive a bill for a pregnancy test. In other instances, the error is hardly an innocent mistake, but fraud aimed at duping patients or insurers into paying more than they owe.
Either way, not only are errors common, but mistakes that can cost individuals far more than they owe are frequent enough that policyholders should seek second opinions when they get a big bill from their insurer, experts say.
Remedy, an online service that reviews medical bills for errors, claims that 70 percent of all bills are flawed. The company makes money by keeping 20 percent of whatever savings it is able to achieve from a customer's medical bill. If it does not find any overcharges, the service is free.
Many employers also offer workers help in analyzing medical bills. A survey by Aon Hewitt found that 45 percent of large employers offer such services.
In 2014, LifeHealthPro discussed the five most common reasons that patients are overcharged.
Duplicate billing is common, often as a result of multiple bills that are generated by a single visit to the hospital. Sometimes one of the services a patient received will be charged multiple times on different bills.
Another provider-created problem comes from "upcoding," when doctors or other medical professionals will charge for a service that is more costly than the one they actually provided. It may be an accident or it may be fraud. In both cases, it is a significant problem that contributes to the soaring cost of health care.
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