Disputing Medical Bills Sometimes Works, According to a New Study

The next time you get a medical bill that you can’t afford or understand, you really should contact the hospital or doctor’s office for help. A new study suggests there’s a good chance you can get assistance if you reach out.

For the study, researchers surveyed 1,135 people and found that 1 in 5 participants had received a medical bill they disagreed with or couldn’t afford. They typically had problems with bills from a doctor’s office, an emergency room visit, or a trip to urgent care, according to study findings published in JAMA Health Forum.

Slightly more than 3 in 5 people who had issues with their bills contacted the provider’s billing offices to address their concerns. When they did this, about 1 in 4 of them got the bill corrected, while about 1 in 7 received a discount or a payment plan.

“Many people are hesitant to pick up the phone to question the accuracy of a problematic medical bill or explore financial options, but our findings indicate it’s worthwhile and typically takes less than one hour,” says lead study author Erin Duffy, PhD, MPH, director of research training at the Schaeffer Center for Health Policy and Economics at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles.

Billing Errors Fixed

In particular, when people reached out about billing errors, the error got fixed 74 percent of the time. Three in four people who had an unaffordable bill got some type of financial relief. And 62 percent of participants who tried to negotiate a discount got a reduced price.