A while back, after Jack had been in to the emergency room on two successive occasions for stitches, I got a medical bill that genuinely confused me, because I thought I'd already paid it. I called the medical billing number and the customer service rep explained very helpfully the source of the bill (the hospital and the doctor charged separately). She then offered, unprompted, to knock 15% off the bill if I paid it right there on the phone via credit card.
Well, thirty dollars is thirty dollars, so I paid by phone and figured a five minute call that saved me $30 was a good deal. But as soon as I thought about it, the whole thing started to make me a bit angry. After all, I'd just paid a whole bunch of medical bills (we hadn't hit our deductible for the year yet) and I hadn't though to call on them. Could I have got them to knock money off just for paying right away, which is what I was going to do regardless? Was I effectively paying a 15% "didn't bother to call" fee?
So now I find myself calling on every medical bill, asking for an explanation on it, and asking if I can get it reduced if I pay right away. Some places will, some won't. 15% seems to be the maximum. But although it saves money (and thus I feel like I can't avoid it) I find myself experiencing that frustrating feeling one ofter does after negotiating for a car: that if only one had been more clever one could have paid less, and that one was probably cheated somehow or other.
I find myself experiencing that frustrating feeling one ofter does after negotiating for a car: that if only one had been more clever one could have paid less, and that one was probably cheated somehow or other.
ReplyDeleteI generally get that feeling when dealing with the government or insurance companies in general... I think the lack of transparency is a big factor.
That's one reason why I'm sorry that Saturn is no longer around and why I've delayed buying my next car. I don't like the haggling game.
ReplyDelete--C.B.
I think it's generally a set policy as a way of charging "the same" to all insurance plans, while making a bit of a "cash/full payment discount" available to those paying out of pocket. I have been told our local hospital used to list such a policy on their bill, and I think it was 15% too. My last car insurance bill had the same kind of note. You probably could just ask about the various policies, and then just note that "I'm requesting the x% full payment discount" while paying the 100-x% amount.
ReplyDeleteFrustrating, though, that you need to poke them in order to find out about the deal....
Ouch, 3 out of 20, but I live almost inside the DC Beltway (one mile). So that's my excuse. I have lots of friends of opposite politics, b/c everyone here is liberal. I'm everyone's token conservative friend. My back and shoulders always hurt at the end of the day, but that's not exactly b/c I'm doing heavy construction. And I have seen Oprah. (Oh the same!) I did know a fair number of evangelicals in high school in TX, but up here we've got pretty much everyone else. Of my acquaintance it's mostly the Godless, followed by Catholics, a few mainliners, Jews, Hindus, Muslims, and a couple Mormons.
ReplyDeleteoops posted in wrong thread
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