Mom shares ingenious and proven strategy for resolving billing errors on medical bills

Everybody knows just how absurdly expensive healthcare is in the United States. So, necessary procedures like childbirth end up being too costly, even if individuals possess health insurance. Getting a hefty bill after delivering a baby is not something that mothers necessarily want to deal with. But sometimes, the situation worsens when hospitals charge people for services that they did not receive. Annie Muscato (@afmuscato) went through such an experience after giving birth to her second baby and shared how she was able to rectify the error.

Muscato starts the video by saying, "Today's unsolicited life hack is going to be about medical bills." She explains how she came to know about the valuable tip from a random debt collector. The woman shares how she gave birth to her second child and received an unusually expensive medical bill. She had paid for it before with her firstborn, so she knew that there was an error. She says how it seemed like "several thousand too many dollars."

The woman called the hospital and requested to get a bill with a breakup of everything. She states how there were the usual highly priced bills, but she shockingly found out that she had been charged $3000 for an epidural. Muscato says, "I can assure you, I did not have an epidural with my second child." She was happy that she spotted such a big error and called the billing department to inform them about it.

She initially thought it would have been a very easy fix, but that was not the case. The woman had to call them over ten times and they were insistent that the woman had got an epidural. The people from the billing department explained that they could clearly see on their record that the woman had gotten an epidural and that she had to pay for it. Muscato says, "I clearly was not going to pay for it because I did not in fact, receive an epidural."

The woman decided to pay for everything except the epidural, which led to the matter being escalated to debt collection. Muscato mentions that she had a very good experience with the "medical side" of the hospital, but the "billing department" proved to be complicated. She states how she always paid her bills on time and never had any run-ins with debt collections. The woman received a call from a lovely lady informing her that she was from a debt collection agency and that she owed money for the epidural.

Muscato got worried and informed the woman about how she had been billed incorrectly for a treatment that she did not receive. The debt collector was very understanding and said, "Oh, this happens all the time. They mess up stuff all the time." She clarified that Muscato's credit would not be affected and also explained how to fix the problem. The debt collector said, "Call them and tell them that you want to request your full medical record because now you are concerned about what else has been erroneously recorded in your medical record." 

The woman tried this out and shared that it fixed her problem "so freaking fast." She made the call and followed the debt collector's instructions. Muscato says, "They remove the charge within hours!" The woman shared how she had an online record showcasing all the medical treatments she received. The epidural was not being shown, but the billing department seemed to be adamant that it was there. 

She concludes by sharing how the tip had worked for her on other occasions and all people needed to do was make a request for their medical records. The problem seemed to be widespread as people shared their own stories of being billed incorrectly in the comments section. @krhw1038051 said, "I got charged for a C-section that I never had. That was easy to prove as I've never been pregnant." @couldbeanyone22 said, "I got billed for labor and delivery. I didn't have a baby."