Dealing with Multiple Hospital Health Insurance Bills

Part 2, Chapter 5: Traditional Individual and Group Plans, Hospital Bills Page 6

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A Hospital Stay May Produce a Multitude of Bills

Years ago, patients who were not covered by health insurance often received a single bill when they left the hospital. If a patient was covered by health insurance, only a single bill was generally sent to the insurer. That bill included charges for the hospital room, food, medications, nursing care, and the use of hospital facilities, as well as charges for the services of the doctors and surgeons who provided treatment. Hospitals don't always work that way any more. Instead, a hospital may bill the patient only for the cost of the room, food, medication, nursing care, supplies, and the use of hospital facilities. Each of the doctors who provided treatment in the hospital may send a separate bill.

In addition, while the hospital may file the bill for hospital services directly with your insurance company, the insurance information that you gave to the hospital will not necessarily be given to the doctors who provided treatment. Thus, the bills from those doctors may be sent to you, not to your insurer. When you receive the bills, you can either provide each of the doctors' offices with your insurance information so that they can file the claims with your insurer, or you can file the claims on your own.

For example, let's assume that you accidentally trip while stepping off the sidewalk and that you're injured in the fall. You're taken by ambulance to the emergency room of the local hospital, where you are treated for a fractured arm and a possible head injury. You're eventually admitted to the hospital overnight for observation and further tests -- including an X-ray of your arm and your head -- and you're released the next morning. During your brief hospital stay, treatment would probably have been provided by an emergency room doctor, a radiologist, an orthopedic surgeon, and a neurologist. Each of those doctors may send you a separate bill, in addition to the bill from the hospital. While the hospital may file the claim for hospital services with your insurer, you may be responsible for filing the claim for the emergency room doctor, the radiologist, the orthopedic surgeon, and the neurologist.

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