If you’ve ever tried to read a medical bill, you may have felt confused and frustrated. Hospital and other healthcare bills can come with lots of unfamiliar terms and codes.
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It turns out that being able to read those codes may be one trick to significantly reducing your healthcare costs. This may come in handy considering the average per-day hospital cost in 2023 in the United States was more than $3,000, according to a KFF analysis of American Hospital Association data.
Read on and learn how to leverage this to your financial benefit.
One Man’s Story
The importance of patients knowing medical terms and codes associated with healthcare bills has gained nationwide attention thanks to the story of Matt Rosenberg of New York. As noted by Moneywise, he challenged billing practices with the help of artificial intelligence and reportedly cut a $195,000 medical bill to $37,000.
Rosenberg said the family demanded the Current Procedural Terminal (CPT) codes, which are used to standardize the reporting of medical services for billing and other uses. He then used AI to analyze each code against Medical billing rules — finding some major billing issues such as double-billing for procedures.
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The Takeaway for All Patients
Here’s the lesson for the rest of us: Regardless of your insurance status and medical bills, it can potentially save you big money if you regularly review your healthcare costs and dispute anything that doesn’t seem right.
In my own case, I asked my primary doctor to recode my preventive visits so that my insurance would cover them entirely. I ended up saving hundreds of dollars when he changed the code from follow-up appointments (sometimes called diagnostic) to preventive ones. I only knew something wasn’t right because I regularly review my medical bills and did research to figure out what the codes meant with my insurance.
“I’ve seen people with solid savings and good habits get knocked off track simply because healthcare expenses were bigger or more frequent than they planned for, and those costs don’t just affect one month, they linger,” said Taylor Kovar, certified financial planner (CFP) and co-founder of BudgetGPT.
“Being more proactive with healthcare costs, understanding coverage, questioning bills and planning ahead, often creates breathing room that protects the rest of their financial life from unnecessary stress.”
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This article originally appeared on GOBankingRates.com: Slash Your Medical Costs Quick With This 1 Trick
