So, you’re in the position where you had to seek medical attention, and now you’re slapped with a larger-than-imagined medical bill that you’re not entirely sure you can pay off. Well, you’ve come to the right place. Here, I’ll dive into the different ways in how to pay off medical bills, including how to lower them.
What are medical bills?
Have you ever gone to the hospital and left without an invoice, because the admin said you’d receive it in the mail? So, medical bills are invoices or statements that list out the cost of all the medical treatments, medications, or other healthcare-related expenses used on you during your visit. This is an invoice that healthcare providers send to patients for the services you received. Typically, they go through your insurance first to see what they can bill, then send you the remaining bill you’re responsible for. Typically, as in not always the case.
This post is about how to pay off medical bills.
Let’s look into the ways on how to pay off medical bills, including how to lower medical bills.
1. Review Your Bills
Always, always, always review the bills you received! This is to ensure that the bill you’re receiving and being asked to pay for is accurate, and that you’re not being charged for services/medications you didn’t receive. If you find any errors, contact the healthcare provider to get them corrected! If they don’t have helpful info, contact your insurance provider next! Depending on how your insurance is set up, there may be an intermediary between your health insurance provider and the facility in which you received treatment. If so, contact them and ask for a breakdown!
2. Negotiate
Healthcare shouldn’t be one of the things we could negotiate for, but it is. So, it’s always a negotiation. So, try negotiating with your healthcare provider. See if they can give you a discount, set up a payment plan, or even just to make sure you were charged correctly!
3. Use Payment Plans
Something people don’t normally tell you is that you can always ask for a payment plan. They might say no, but at least you asked! Careful, make sure the payment plan you’re signing up for does not have any interest tacked onto it! Otherwise, you’ll end up paying even more than the original bill. That’s not something you want to sign up for!
Many healthcare providers offer this option to let you pay your bills over time. It’s a win-win, really. They get the money, and you can pay it in an amount you’re comfortable with. Requesting payment plans is a good option if you can’t pay the bill in its entirety at once.
4. Use HSA
In this post, we dove deep into the pros and cons of an HSA vs FSA. This is a great option if you don’t have the cash upfront, but have some stashed away in your HSA. Since an HSA is a pre-taxed savings account, you’d effectively save up to 10% due to the nature of it being pre-taxed contribution money.
5. Personal Loan
There’s a reason this is the last tip on this list. For the most part, it’s not advisable to utilize debt to pay off other debt. (An exceptions to this is when you refinance a mortgage to a lower interest rate.)
However, if you have good credit, you may be able to take out a personal loan to pay off the medical bill. This should only be utilized if the interest rate on the personal loan is lower than the interest rate on your credit card. Again, be sure to go through the options above before resorting to this tip. Unless you’re in a very unique position, you should be able to negotiate and go the payment plan route prior to resorting to taking out a personal loan. Even then, check the terms and conditions before signing on for more debt!
To reiterate, the top ways on how to pay off medical bills are:
- Review your bills
- Negotiate
- Use payment plans
- Use HSA/FSA
- Personal loan
There you have it! The top 5 ways on how to pay off medical bills. Interested in learning more about the finances of healthcare? Check this post out for the pros and cons of an HSA vs FSA!
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