02-06-2015, 03:37 AM
I switched jobs and moved to a new area. New insurance, new provider, etc. Went in for my first checkup, had bloodwork done, went over some ongoing health issues. Pretty normal office visit. I recieved the bill today and it is about 2x what I expected it to be, even after the insurance deduction. The bill was right around $1200. Insurance adjustments for the allowable rate only brought it down to about $1050. My portion was right around half of that, which on the surface doesn't seem that bad.
However, I dug up one of my old bills from my previous provider and insurance and found that the insurance adjustment was much larger. On my previous provider/insurance an identical visit was $1500, insurance adjustments for allowable billing brought it down to $500 and I payed about half of that.
I moved from a more expensive healthcare market and was going to a higher tier provider into a cheaper market and going to a larger middle rated provider. Deductables are the same for both plans. I would have expected a large decrease in cost. But it appears that my current health insurance did ahorrible very poor job negotiating their allowable rates with their providers. Either that or the insurance I had before was the gold standard of awesomeness and completely atypical.
Is there anything I can do about this? Negotiate directly with the Hospital/clinic? I have bills from other providers and know what they should be charging for their services, so I know I am getting a poor deal. There isn't anything abnormal on the bill, everything is straight forward and there are no odd line items.
However, I dug up one of my old bills from my previous provider and insurance and found that the insurance adjustment was much larger. On my previous provider/insurance an identical visit was $1500, insurance adjustments for allowable billing brought it down to $500 and I payed about half of that.
I moved from a more expensive healthcare market and was going to a higher tier provider into a cheaper market and going to a larger middle rated provider. Deductables are the same for both plans. I would have expected a large decrease in cost. But it appears that my current health insurance did a
Is there anything I can do about this? Negotiate directly with the Hospital/clinic? I have bills from other providers and know what they should be charging for their services, so I know I am getting a poor deal. There isn't anything abnormal on the bill, everything is straight forward and there are no odd line items.