We've had that bill too
You open it and your stomach drops. How is it this much? Then the frustration: what do you even do, and who do you call? That helpless feeling is where we started.
So we built something to answer it. We help patients and families do one hard thing: ask a large institution to account for what it charged.
Our team has worked and consulted across many parts of the healthcare industry. We have deep personal and professional experience dealing with these institutions, and negotiating with them. We are here to steady you, and to give you a clear next step.
What you are actually up against
One visit. Four bills. Four companies.
A single hospital stay is billed separately by the hospital, the physicians, the imaging center and the laboratory. They arrive weeks apart. Sorting out one of them does nothing about the other three.
Wrong bills are ordinary, not unlucky.
The Commonwealth Fund surveyed 7,873 US adults. 45% of insured adults were billed for a service they believed their insurance should have covered.
Source: Commonwealth Fund, Health Care Affordability Survey.
Almost nobody argues back.
Fewer than half of the people who hit a billing error or denial challenged it, mostly because they didn't know they had the right to. Of those who did not challenge a billing error or denial, 54% said they did not know they were allowed to.
Source: Commonwealth Fund, Health Care Affordability Survey.
Arguing back usually works.
A study published in JAMA Health Forum found that among people who contacted a billing office about an error, almost three quarters had the error corrected.
Source: JAMA Health Forum, USC Schaeffer Center.
The help exists. Nobody mentions it.
Most nonprofit hospitals are legally required to run a financial assistance program. 51% of patients who could qualify for hospital financial assistance never apply. 52% of patients say their hospital never told them financial assistance existed.
Source: Dollar For, The Path to Charity Care.
Nobody hands you the paperwork.
There is no form that arrives with your bill explaining how to question it. No letter that tells you your deadline. The process is real and it is open to you, and finding it is entirely your problem.
What we are, and what we are not
We are not a law firm.
We are not a debt adjuster or a credit repair organization.
We are not affiliated with Medicare or any government program.
Questions before you start? Write to us at support@patientstand.com. Answers within 48 hours.