hospital bills

Don’t assume you won’t be charged if you leave before receiving care – even if vitals are checked as part of the triage process. In this case, the patient went to another ER seeking help for her severe migraine.

A federal disclosure rule is offering new insight on the effect of healthcare monopolies on pricing, following a wave of U.S. mergers.

When surgery became unavoidable, a man with no insurance shopped around for the best price for a hernia repair — and saved thousands by traveling out of state.

Margaret Hvatum ended up in the hospital after her insurer denied coverage of a medicine she relies on to boost her immune system.

Come January, billing codes will change from a bundled system to a la carte. Man doctors say this approach will better reflect care provided. But it could incentivize them to pile on visits and services.

A woman started exhibiting unusual memory problems – a disorder called transient global amnesia. Now recovered, a dispute over hospital charges has been a source of stress for over a year.

A bug bite ultimately sent a North Carolina woman to the emergency room, where she had a couple of brief chats with a doctor and a dose of medicine. Now she questions why the charges were so high.

Deborah Buttgereit knew piecing together the broken bone in her elbow would be expensive. But complications the doctor deemed a surprise, midsurgery, drove the bill far above the estimate.

A mom took her 3-year-old to the ER last December. While they were waiting to be seen, the toddler seemed better, so they left without seeing a doctor. Then the bill came.

For snakebite victims, antivenom is critical — and costly. It took more than $200,000 worth of antivenom to save one toddler’s life after he was bitten by a rattlesnake.

The No Surprises Act offers protection from many surprise bills, but that protection may be only as good as a patient’s knowledge of the law and ability to make sure it’s enforced. Here’s what you need to know.

While false alarms are to be expected, such frequent charges for little if any treatment suggest some hospitals see the alerts as much as a money spigot as a clinical emergency tool, claims consultants say.