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[quote=Anonymous]Medical billing in the US is infuriating. I bet if you walked into the ER right now, and asked how much is the pregnancy test, no one there could tell you it's $224. Can you think of another business where you go in and ask for service and no one there can provide a price?

Then, the bill you got is list prices. Those with insurance have a negotiated rate that is steeply discounted. I had a 1-hour surgery on my leg a few years ago (broken bone, needed a screw inserted). The list price on the bill was $33k. The discounted price was about $4k, and I had to pay about $600 and insurance covered the rest.

So as others have mentioned, call up biling and tell them you have little money, and offer to settle. Start at 10% of the bill and go up to about 30%.

If you have a little time... the government finally required hospitals to post their pricing... sort of. Here's a price list for all hospitals run by Hopkins, like Sibley and Suburban:
https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/patient-care/patients-visitors/billing-insurance/pay-bill/charges-fees

The price list for Sibley is over 450,000 lines (I'm not kidding!) but it does list the price insurers have negotiated. If you can wade through such a file for your hospital, you know what kind of rate you can get. Good luck![/quote]

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