One thing can lower your health care bills; it may take only an hour

Under the American health care system, frustrating medical bills are a part of life. But if you get a bill you can’t afford or don’t understand, it’s worth reaching out to try and resolve it, according to a new study.

The study, conducted by researchers at the USC Schaeffer Center for Health Policy and Economics, found that the majority of people who reached out to their doctor’s billing office about a problem bill received some sort of resolution. Most people reported their issue was resolved with less than an hour of effort. The study was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association Health Forum.

“Our big takeaway is that it’s really worth the call when you get a bill that you can’t afford or doesn’t make sense to you,” said Erin Duffy, a research scientist at the Schaeffer Center and the lead author of the study.

About 1 in 5 of the people who responded said they’d recently received a medical bill that was troubling in some way. Of that group, about 3 in 5 reached out to someone to inquire about it. Typically, Duffy said, they reached out to the billing office for the place that had sent them the bill, like a doctor’s office or medical imaging center. 

“Of the people who did reach out, most of them got some sort of positive results,” Duffy said. “They got a bill corrected or got more flexibility in payment or lower payment requirements.”

Researchers surveyed 1,135 participants in the Understanding America Study, which retains granular demographic data on participants such as income, education level, health status, financial literacy and personality characteristics. People of all income and education levels and sources of health insurance were about equally likely to report having received a problematic medical bill. But people who reached out about it were more likely to have a college degree, more likely to have a high rate of financial literacy, and more likely to have a more extroverted and less agreeable personality type.

The majority of people who reached out about a bill did so by phone. Gen Z and millennials have a reputation for “phone anxiety,” but Duffy said all age groups were roughly equally likely to make a call about a billing issue.

People who didn’t reach out about their bill were given a list of explanations to choose from and asked to choose all that applied. Eighty-six percent said they didn’t think it would change anything. Thirty-four percent said they didn’t feel comfortable reaching out. And 25% said they didn’t have time. 

Of course, there’s a big-picture question here: Why are problematic bills so prevalent? Blame the system. More than 70% of Americans believe the health care system is failing them. The majority of Americans are unhappy with it.

“Is the U.S. health care system expensive, complicated, dysfunctional, or broken?” a doctor and senior editor for Harvard Health Publishing asked in a piece last year. “The simple answer is yes to all.”

Confusing medical bills are just a small piece of that vexing puzzle. Doctors don’t like having to pay staff to sort out bills and fight with insurance companies. Patients don’t like putting as much as a third of their income toward health care while still having to make the occasional disagreeable phone call about it. America spends more per capita on health care than any other wealthy nation without many improved health care outcomes to show for it — and in many metrics, such as life expectancy and infant mortality, Americans are doing worse. 

The area of health care spending where America is far and away number one? Administrative costs.

There are potential solutions. Duffy said more clarity in billing could reduce patient confusion, and health care providers could offer more information on payment plans and financial assistance. 

Despite how many Americans are unhappy with the status quo, health care isn’t taking up a lot of space in the presidential election at the moment. Neither presidential candidate had much to say about it in their convention speeches: Harris said that as president, she would “lower the cost of everyday needs” including health care, but didn’t elaborate. Both vowed to protect Medicare.

Could a nationwide model come from California? A statewide universal single-payer health care plan died in committee again earlier this year.

So, for now, you’re on your own. Getting health care in America shouldn’t include an unpaid part-time job working the phones, but it does. Making that phone call will probably be worth your time.

Reach Jessica Roy: [email protected]