[Craig T]

Originally Posted by motion

I won't play into the system. I'm self-insured and will grind them down any time I need them and have to pay cash. I will also seek out medical help out of the country when I need it.

If something major happens to me, I will grind them down to 10% of the billing.

My 0.02

There's actually a lot to this^^^ To prevent cost-shifting to Medicare, Medicaid, and Medi-Medi (gov payors), there are "Lowest Charge" provisions that prohibit some healthcare services from charging anybody, or any private payor, less than the government plans. To avoid violating Lowest Charge, many healthcare providers bill everybody at the rate of the highest payor's reimbursement schedule, then they just "accept assignment" if a insurance or institutional payor pays less. e.g Diagnostic, dermatology, and pathology labs often have a 75% "contractual allowance" (bad debt) allocation on the P&L. The person this practice hurts most is cash paying or high deductible patients. If nobody complains, medical providers are happy to take all the money, but almost all will agree to negotiate WAY down if you pay in cash (or CC).

I negotiated my sinus surgery down from $15K to $5K by offering cash. If you say you're not going to pay it and go ahead and turn you over to collection, they'll almost always accept a discounted offer. Collection agencies take 50%, so a 40% discount is a no-brainer.