Article: 8 out of 10 hospital bills contain errors

According to Nora Johnson, director of education and hospital billing compliance for Medical Billing Advocates of America, "eight out of every 10 hospital bills she scrutinizes contain multiple errors." (Source: "Read medical bills closely to avoid overpaying," Dow Jones Newswires, Columbus Dispatch, Nov. 11, 2007.) While Johnson said bills from doctors' offices and labs contained fewer mistakes, even people with health insurance can get hit with significant costs from these errors as a result of high deductibles. Johnson said common errors included insurers failing to apply discounted group rates negotiated with health-care providers. "Other common blunders include medical-coding errors, mistakes in how annual deductibles are applied and confusion over which providers are in or out of network. Fraudulent activity by some unscrupulous health-care providers and medical-identity theft are other bugaboos, experts say."

Another problem is patients comprehending their medical bills. According to a recent study by PNC Financial Services Group Inc., one in three Americans reported having trouble understanding the explanation of health benefits they received for health-care services.