As medical costs continue to rise, one brave soul puts up her dukes to the hierarchical powers to bring down her boyfriend’s medical bill. Here is the girlfriend’s account of her experience around holiday time. We’ll name her Jane.
Jane’s Boyfriend Gets A ‘Ridiculous’ Hospital Bill
Jane’s boyfriend went to the emergency room after an accident and got “a truly ridiculous bill back.” She offered to fight the bill for him because she’d done it before, and he said sure. She went all-out because the bill was out five grand, after insurance, which would screw up their holiday plans.
Jane Is Working In a Frenzy
Jane took numerous steps she shared on the Internet. Once her boyfriend got the hospital to authorize her to handle his bill and access his medical records, she reviewed his itemized bill and compared the prices for each code to the fair prices. Then, she focused on the billing department.
Jane Made Calls To The Billing Department
She called the billing department about the bill, but that department only collects bills, so she needed to contact the administration to dispute the account. She was bounced around the call center for hours but didn’t get far.
Jane Reached Out To the Most Influential Managers
Jane did a Google and LinkedIn search for the hospital board of directors and upper management. She received 30 email responses from the most influential people at the hospital, plus the hospital’s investors.
Daily, she sent out responses, working her way up the chain and writing an (increasingly long) email describing how they billed my “client” seven times over the fair price for services rendered. OP told them how their billing department, customer service department, and the growing list of management she’d emailed had failed to address the issue.
Jane Sent Her Analysis of Service Pricing to The Board of Directors and Investors
Jane escalated the emails until she wrote the director-level staff with the entire board of directors and CC’d several outside investors, asking for a written statement regarding their justification for billing at a rate seven times higher than the national average for commensurate services to what is available at other hospitals. She sternly laid out the failures to respond appropriately at every company level.
Finally, Jane Shares the Results With Her Boyfriend
Jane shared her results with her boyfriend, saying, “Well, once I’d done all that (only 15 minutes a day), they reduced the bill… From $5000 to $26. Yep, twenty-six @#$%&* dollars.”
She told her boyfriend about the reduced medical bill, and he was initially happy. However, he asked how she did it. She shared some details, but he flipped through the 60 emails when she gave him her phone. He told her she went ” way too far,” saying he had expected her just to dispute with the billing department, “or something normal and reasonable like that, not internet stalk every manager, board member, and investor,” harassing them into dropping the bill.
Jane Was Annoyed At Her Boyfriend’s Response
Jane was frustrated and furious at her boyfriend because she had saved substantial money to afford a lovely holiday, and he was mad at her for her tactics. She turned to the Internet, asking if she was wrong about how she got her boyfriend’s medical bill dropped.
Online Weighed In, Calling Jane A Rock Star
Jane Felt Better After Hearing the Positive Remarks
Jane responded to the comments, asking her where she had known how to do this, saying, “Ugh, I wish I hadn’t. I only learned so much about corporate law after a few experiences as a woman in automotive engineering that made me practice reading law and threatening corporations. Thanks for the compliment, but honestly, these skills suck to learn, so I’m mostly just fed up.”
What do you think? Is this story bizarre or too familiar to you? I was grateful that nobody agreed with her boyfriend, and I hope he sees his error. This internet story honestly united everyone, and that’s a rare occurrence.
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With a passion for investing and personal finance, I began The Cents of Money to help and teach others. My experience as an equity analyst, professor, and mom provide me with unique insights about money and wealth creation and a desire to share with you.
The girlfriend did the right thing with her boyfriend’s medical bills. These costs are out of control and now patients are being charged for items that they shouldn’t be. Please, please always check and question your medical bills and kudos to the girlfriend fantastic job
I agree with you. The girlfriend saved him a lot of money, and can give us a
lesson about advocating for ourselves when the medical bills are out of reach for
many of us.
Best,
Linda