Back in July, our little girl spent a few days in the hospital. Yesterday, the bill from the hospital arrived in the mail. Our insurance company has paid its portion of the costs, and the bill was for our portion.
The bottom of the bill reads –
Current Amount Due – $362.39
Discounted Amount Due If Paid By 09/28/08 – $326.15
So, I logged into my checking account, made the payment of $326.15, and saved myself 10%.
Have you ever been offered a discount for paying a medical bill early?
The discount certainly motivated me to go ahead and pay the bill. I wish every company with which I do business would do the same!
The hospital I work for offers a 40% prompt pay discount (paid within 30 days) for people without insurance, though I don’t think it extends to people with insurance. I think it’s pretty nice, but it’s a catch22 in a way….. the person without insurance probably wouldn’t be able to afford 40% of a few thousand dollar ER visit, and might not be able to get a loan for the amount either.
It’s interesting you mention that. I used to work in hospital billing for a VERY large and VERY prestigious Health System on the east coast and can tell you that a majority of hospitals are so anxious to get you to pay your portion of a bill, thereby avoiding having to write it off as a bad debt after spending money to send the debt to be “worked” by a collection agency, that they will offer discounts if you pay within a certain time frame. They even will often write similar stipulations into their contracts with the major health insurance companies. For instance, if Hospital A sends a patient’s bill to a Blue Cross plan, and Blue Cross pays within 30 days of receiving the claim, the hospital is obligated to accept a payment reduced by 5%, 10% or some similar amount. Hospitals will generally do all they can stomach to avoid having to write off bad debt. This is an example of one of the ways.
No, but this is not unheard of. You can visit hospitals and negotiate a cheaper price to pay for the delivery of a baby. If you can prepay, they’ll give you a deal. Then you can pin the hospitals against each other to get a lower price. I’m sure the same can be said for any anticipated medical event.
I just paid a hospital bill today;I was given 20% off to pay in full and on time. My usual experience is that hospitals will give 10%-25% for on time and full payments. You should always call the hospital and ask for help and they will let you know about the plan. Never just mail a check out because the discount is there.
Dude, if you would have called them and offered $300 or even $250, I bet they would have taken that.
In the ER that I work in, if you have a lump sum available to pay immediately, they’ll work out a deal.
But congrats on your savings! It’s still better than full price.
My experience with hospitals is that if they don’t offer a discount upfront, they will agree to one if you ask for it. This applies to other health care providers as well. Even ones who won’t offer a discount will often let you pay off the balance over time, interest free.
Cheers,
Ken
Often if you call and ask for a discount, they’ll give you one – up to 20-30% sometimes. We had friends who saved 20% off of their recent pregnancy/childbirth bills.
It pays to ask!
The only hospital in my county offers this (7.5% discount), but my husband won’t let me take advantage of it. Instead, he has me call the hospital to add it to the myriad other bills we have with them (I’ve had a very rough year, so far, healthwise). Although they charge no interest to make payments, I’m paying “interest” because I could have saved quite a bit off my bills had I paid them within the alloted time. BTW, my husband is the CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER (yes, I know I’m screaming, but I can’t help it) of a local company. He does well for the company he works for, yet, like the mechanic who has a car that needs mechanical work, it doesn’t translate to what he wants done at home.