American healthcare can be pretty tricky. Unless you have really good insurance, you might be looking at a bill totaling thousands of dollars. Luckily, if you’re diligent enough, you may be able to get some (or even most) of that total taken off your final bill.
A Reddit user named dingussdaisy shared the incredibly long, arduous process she undertook to dispute her boyfriend’s medical bills, which she got down from the thousands, to just a few bucks. But he’s now worried that she took things a little too far. The user asked the AITI community if she was in the wrong for how she went about disputing the bills.
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The User’s Story Is Actually Really Impressive.
It Sounds Like OP Had To Jump Through A Lot Of Hoops.
The user shares that her boyfriend was recently in the ER for an accident, and the bill from his stay ended up being around $5000. She got her boyfriend to authorize her on his bill and medical records and then set to work.
After trying to call different departments to dispute the claims, OP got the run around for hours. She finally ended up looking up the hospital’s most influential people using Google and LinkedIn and began sending them emails. She started at the bottom of that chain, before escalating to the board of directors. Finally, she ended up getting the bill down from $5000 to just $26.
OP was ecstatic because it meant they’d be able to afford a nice holiday season. The boyfriend was excited when he heard the news but got stressed out after finding out what OP did to get the bills dropped. He believes she took it too far, but OP isn’t convinced.
Commenters Believed OP Did The Right Thing.
While the boyfriend thought OP may have gone too far, other users thought this was an amazing way to dispute bills that are much too high and oftentimes overinflated.
Some thought OP should start a business where she helps others dispute their unfair bills, but it seems like it’d be too stressful for her to do full-time.
Others Complained About How Predatory The For-Profit Hospital System Can Be.
Commenters also pointed out how they tend to get away from it because most wouldn’t go as far as OP to dispute their own claims.
All In All, Users Were Confused At The Boyfriend’s Reaction.
Some joked about the other shady industries OP should dispute, while others joked that she should leave her boyfriend for them.
