How to Get Help With Medical Bills

1. Closely Review Bills and Statements

Carefully look through any documents your medical provider and health insurance company send to you, such as medical bills and explanation of benefits (EOB) statements. You may need to ask your provider for an itemized bill.

Review your documents for common medical bill errors, such as:

• Coding errors
• Charges for canceled or refused services
• Data entry mistakes
• Duplicate charges or bills
• Code unbundling
• Charges for equipment that wasn't used
• Incorrect dates and lengths for services

These mistakes could result in you overpaying. Catching and reporting them to the provider's billing department or your insurance company can help you save money.

Tip: Don't ignore EOBs or bills if you haven't received the services they contain. That may be a sign that you're a victim of medical identity theft. Contact the provider right away to get answers.

2. Negotiate With Your Provider

Once you've verified a bill is correct, contact your health care provider to discuss payment options. Ask about the following:

• Extended payment due date: Request more time to pay the bill.
• Payment plan: Medical providers may also offer no- or low-interest payment plans if you can't afford to pay the bill right now. This option may be cheaper than taking out a loan.
• Pay-in-full discount: If you can pay a large portion of the bill, such as 80%, your medical provider may be willing to waive the rest.
• Down payment discount: You could instead offer to pay a lump sum now and chip away at the rest of the bill over time.

If your medical provider offers you a discount or payment plan, make sure you get the terms in writing and follow the terms of the accommodation closely.

Learn more: How to Negotiate a Medical Bill

3. Consider a Medical Billing Advocate

If you're feeling overwhelmed or aren't getting anywhere on your own, you could hire a medical billing advocate to work on your behalf.

The advocate may go through the same process described above: looking over your EOB and bill and discussing payment options with the medical provider. But their experience and expertise may help them quickly spot errors or know which options your provider tends to offer. Advocates can also try to negotiate on your behalf, working to get fees and bills waived or lowered.

Medical billing advocates charge for their services, but they may help you save hundreds or thousands of dollars. Depending on the advocate and situation, you may pay hourly, by project, an amount based on how much you save or a monthly fee (when retaining an advocate for ongoing services).

If you're interested in working with an advocate, you can find options from accreditation organizations and directories, such as the Alliance of Claims Assistance Professionals and Umbra Health Advocacy. You may want to research and compare advocates to find one that can work with your insurance provider, is familiar with your medical situation and charges a fee you can afford.

Tip: Some employers provide medical billing assistance in their employee benefits package. Ask your human resources department or manager if you're unsure.

4. Seek Financial Assistance

You may qualify for financial assistance from a variety of different programs, including government and nonprofit organizations. Availability and eligibility can vary widely depending on where you live and your condition, but the programs generally focus on helping low- to moderate-income households. Some examples of providers and programs include:

• Health care providers: Start with the billing team or social service workers at your health care provider's office. They may be able to lower or waive your costs.
• Medicaid: Medicaid is a government-sponsored program for low-income adults, children, pregnant women, seniors and people with disabilities. Beneficiaries receive free or low-cost medical benefits.
• Patient assistance programs: Some pharmaceutical and medical supply companies run patient assistance programs (PAPs), which provide free or low-cost medications to people who lack health insurance. The Partnership for Prescription Assistance keeps a list of programs to check out.
• CancerCare: CancerCare has a copayment assistance foundation that can help with expenses related to specific cancer diagnoses.
• Blood Cancer United: This nonprofit organization offers several financial assistance programs that may help with travel expenses, copays and urgent needs (including rent, utilities and food).
• Patient Access Network (PAN) Foundation: The PAN Foundation has financial assistance programs that could help you cover out-of-pocket expenses, including health insurance deductibles, premiums and travel. There are almost 70 disease-specific programs available, although they're not all open to new applicants at once.

This is far from an exhaustive list, and you should continue looking for local or state programs, religious groups and other nonprofits that may offer medical bill assistance.

5. Use a Crowdfunding Platform to Request Help

Crowdfunding is a way to raise money online for a personal cause like unaffordable medical treatments and bills. This process usually involves choosing a crowdfunding platform, such as GoFundMe, and creating a campaign to request a specific amount. Friends, family members and anyone else can donate directly through your campaign page. Contributions are generally considered gifts and are not taxable, as long as the donors won't receive anything in return.

6. Look to a Loan as a Last Resort

If you aren't able to get on a low-cost payment plan or find enough help elsewhere, you might consider taking out a loan to pay your medical bills or use a credit card.

Generally, this is a last resort as loans and credit cards (including medical credit cards) carry interest rates and fees that add to your overall costs. You also want to be careful about using a secured loan, such as a home equity loan or line of credit, to pay for medical bills, as you could lose your property if you fall behind on payments.

There may be a few exceptions, though. For example, if you have good credit and a decent income, you may qualify for a low-rate personal loan. Or, you may be able to get a credit card with an introductory 0% annual percentage rate (APR), allowing you to pay off the debt over time without paying additional interest.

What to Do if Your Medical Debt Is Already in Collections

Your health care provider may send debt to a collection agency if you can't pay your medical bill or fall behind on a payment plan. If your medical debt is in collections, here's what you can do:

• Review your notice. Debt collectors must give you a debt collection validation notice to help you verify the debt and learn how to dispute it. Review the notice for details like the original creditor's name, the date of delinquency and the exact amount due. Some laws allow debt collectors to add fees and interest to the balance, so your collection amount may be higher than your original bill.
• Contact the debt collector. If you disagree with details in the debt collection validation notice, contact the agency with questions or to get clarification. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has several sample letters you can use if you're not sure how to start. Act quickly, since you have 30 days to dispute the debt in writing once you receive the notice.
• File a dispute. You have the right to dispute the debt if the validation notice has errors or the debt doesn't belong to you. A successful dispute could save you money and potentially help your credit.
• Pay the debt. If there are no errors with the account, you could try paying off the debt or negotiating the amount owed. Debt collectors may be willing to offer a payment plan or give you a discount for paying a lump sum. Before you hand over money, get any agreements in writing.

The debt collector can keep contacting you until you ask them to stop or you repay the debt. However, taking this step won't erase a valid debt. The collection agency can still attempt to collect payment or sue you and get a judgment, allowing it to garnish your paycheck or bank account.

Frequently Asked Questions

The Bottom Line

Help is available if you're struggling to pay medical bills. Start by reviewing your medical bills and trying to negotiate with your providers. If you aren't successful and the medical bills are high, you may decide to hire an advocate to help you.

While you're managing your medical bills, it's important to monitor your credit. If a medical collection account appears on your credit reports, check whether the information is accurate and the provider is reporting the details correctly. You can get free Experian credit report monitoring to help you track any changes to your credit report and find out how medical debt may be impacting your credit.