A Lifeboat for Dealing with Medical Bills

For an increasing number of people,  a major medical problem is a diaster for a family’s finances.  Even without a medical calamity,  higher and higher co-pays and deductibles are ruinous for a family’s savings. These now average over $3000 a year. Further complicating this problem, medical bills, often in five figures, are not understandable. Even worse,  medical  bills are usually incorrect.  Pat Palmer, founder of Medical Billing Advocates of America is quoted in an article in USA Today  as stating, “Eight out of 10 times — and that is conservative — the bills that you get are not right,” says . “It is normally in the favor of the biller.”

These bills come at a time when people are stressed or still ill and not able to deal with the bills. It’s no surprise that half of all personal bankruptcies are due to medical expenses. A June 22 article in the New York Times entitled “Getting Lost in the Labyrinth of Medical Bills” describes outrageous examples of our broken the system of medical billing is.

But there is a lifeboat for people caught with these medical bills. Unfortunately, it does not pay the bills, but it will check them for accuracy, giving you or someone representing you, the ammunition you need to get your bills reduced. This a new free service called Simplee. which scans your medical and dental bills, checks them against what your health plan will pay and going rates for the services you have obtained, and then emails you with the results. The company will also archive all your bills and enable you to look up past bills easily.

To check this service out for yourself, go to http://simplee.com/. Another site to check out if you have a problem is Medical Billing Advocates of America.