"Only Suckers Pay Retail - How to chop hundreds of dollars off your medical bills." by David Whelan - published 11/06 Forbes (link goes to archive page requiring payment)

Summary:

Medical proceedure costs are not usually known before you get the bill.  Costs for the same procedure/treatment can be vastly different from place to place.

While most insurance companies routinely negotiate lower fees for services (they know what services should cost).  Often, the fees are still unfairly high when compared with comparable charges from other facilities.

My Medical Control is a company that was created to help consumers negotiate these charges.  They will run your bill "through a database that analyzes the 12,000 commonly used medical codes and check them against a wide range of reimbursement policies in 200 metropolitan areas."

If the customer does not get the lowest rate, the negotiator from My Medical Control makes an offer based on the lowest rates in his database.  Forbes reported that the average bill is about $1000 and the client usually receives about a 22% discount. The largest bill was $62,000 and resulted in a 50% reduction for their client.

Editors Note: We have not used the service at the time if this writing. We would appreciate any feedback from patients who try the service.