Health care journalist Marshall Allen shares practical strategies for reducing medical bills: ask for itemized bills, check billing codes, verify charges, and contest errors. Patients can save hundreds or thousands of dollars by learning to navigate the system.
We're going to turn now to our next guest, who is advocating for millions of Americans who have been overcharged and strapped with expensive medical bills by the health care industry. He is on a mission now to help patients combat those unfair costs with his new book, Never Pay the First Bill and Other Ways to Fight the Health Care System and Win. Author Marshall Allen joins us now with. I know a lot of people waiting for your very important information because so many people in this boat, and I know you've spent more than 15 years as a health care journalist. You've pretty much seen it all. So why now? Why are you writing this book now?
Americans consistently call the high cost of health care their number one financial concern. And the dirty secret is the high cost doesn't have to be that high. There is a tremendous amount of waste in the system. There are a tremendous amount of unnecessary overcharges and unnecessary care. And so my book shows people how to navigate the pitfalls of the health care system to save their families a lot of money.
Yeah, and speaking of saving money, Marshall, I know you do reveal many ways people can navigate paying their bills and still keep money in their pockets. But what are some of your top strategies?
Well, here's the number one thing you need to do if you get a hospital bill. First of all, ask for an itemized bill. Make sure you get a bill that describes each charge that makes up the sum of the total they're asking you to pay. That's the same kind of thing you'd get from a grocery store or any restaurant you go to get that from your hospital. Number two, make sure that that itemized bill has the billing codes. This is just the lexicon that a hospital or doctor's office uses to translate the medical records into insurance, into insurance claims. Number three, once you have those codes and you understand the itemized bill, you can check to see if it's accurate. Make sure there are no charges on there for things that did not occur. You wouldn't believe how common that is. And then also check the prices. You can now go on hospital websites to check the prices. And if those prices are inaccurate or unfair, then you need to contest any errors or unreasonable charges in your bills. You contest them by calling the billing department, calling the cfo, calling the board members, and even I recommend suing in small claims court to defend yourself if that's something that the hospital is not correcting for you.
And Marshall, I mean, this book is so important because it isn't until you've experienced a really serious medical emergency, that you might be faced with this. And then you're at your most vulnerable point. You're so overwhelmed just trying to either fight for your life or get your health back that this is just another fly in the ointment that is sometimes overwhelming for people. So you have true stories about patients who are in that very boat who fought those medical bills and won. But what do you say to people out there who are just, as I said, fighting for their health and at the same time trying to fight for their wallet?
Well, first of all, this is a completely unfair situation that we're put in as American patients trying to navigate our healthcare system. Many people won't be able to do it, but many people will. And I look at this like learning financial health literacy. Just like you have to learn financial literacy. The first time you learned to balance your checkbook. It was pretty confusing too. But if you don't do it right, you can lose hundreds or thousands of dollars. It's very similar here. There are some easy things that you can learn to navigate the system. I know it feels complicated. I know it feels paralyzing. But people are saving their families hundreds or even thousands of dollars with every healthcare interaction when they apply the steps that I lay out in my book. So I hope people will give it a try. It is possible to fight back and win.
Knowledge is power, certainly in this instance. Marshall Allen, thank you so much for joining us. We really appreciate it.
It's my pleasure. Thank you.
And everyone you can pick up. Never Pay the First Bill and other ways to fight the healthcare system and win wherever books are sold.
Well, hey there GMA fans. Robin Roberts here. Thanks for checking out our YouTube channel. Lots of great stuff here. So go on, click the subscribe button right over here to get more of awesome videos and content from GMA every day anytime. We thank you for watching and we'll see you in the morning on gma.
Marshall Allen, "Never Pay the First Bill' Part 1 | The Ovation Show w/ Dan Labroad
