Lives of Medical Bills; Would This Interest You?

(originally published March 15th, 2005)

This isn’t an ad for someone to become a medical biller, or for me to train anyone on how to send out medical claims. Please, let me explain.

I was talking to a friend earlier this evening on the phone. We got around to where she had gone to the emergency room for something she was going through, and she mentioned that she hadn’t paid the self pay portion of her bill. When I asked her why, she said she didn’t agree with a couple of charges on her bill. I asked her how much the bill was for, and she said all she had to pay was the co-pay amount, but if they took those other charges off, her bill would be lower. I explained to her that it wasn’t the case, that because of her insurance (which I was familiar with), that would have been the amount she had to pay whether the bill was $15 or $1,000.

She said she didn’t know that, and would pay the bill. Then we got into a discussion of just how medical billing works from a provider perspective, and why the money people think doctors and hospitals are making isn’t anywhere close to that. She found it fascinating, and thought that maybe it was something I should write about, to help the “regular folks” understand the process better.

I’d been thinking about doing something like that, but I’m not sure what I’d do with it. I mean, do I write it and post it somewhere? Do I write it and offer it if someone signs up for a newsletter, or purchases a product? Or, if it ends up being long enough, sell it as a standalone, though at a relatively low price, since it won’t turn into anything close to a book? Or do I write it and post it as a freebie somewhere on my regular webpage, to see if anyone’s interested in trying to find it? Or would I be wasting my time; would anyone really care?

Comments will tell; let’s see if at least 3 people are willing to give an opinion on it, and we’ll go from there.