National Medical Information Center

7 Tips For Paying A Big Hospital Bill

Haggling with your hospital to lower your bill might not be something you would consider doing, but you don’t always have to pay retail prices for your stay.

Here are 7 tips for to boost your odds of success when fighting and paying a big hospital bill:

1. Know the real cost

Research price range information for your procedure at local hospitals so you have a reasonable figure to use when starting a discussion. Check your insurance companies literature online to see their negotiated rates.

Most local providers would consider a fair price for self-paying patients to be a small premium above the average fee accepted as payment from insurers.

When health-related issues arise, people understand the importance of choosing a hospital they can trust with their health or the health of their child or loved one. To keep your hospital at the top of their mind when they need it, hospital marketing is critical. In many European countries, practitioners are the key target group for hospital marketing as they act as gatekeepers by referring patients to hospitals.

Without marketing, hospitals may lose current patients, new patients and even referrals. People new to the area who could be potential patients may not know the hospital exists and referring physicians and other health professionals may stop passing referrals if the hospital has ceased communications.

The importance of hospital marketing is discussed here:

4 Rules For Effective Hospital Marketing

p>To stay financially viable, hospitals must increase their patient numbers. To do this requires marketing their services to potential referring physicians and patients.

Here are 4 rules hospitals should follow to create a successful marketing campaign.

Rule 1. Conduct market research

Before you start on a marketing plan, you need to know what your competitors are doing and who your audience is. If your hospital is close to a clinic offering the best diabetes care in the country, it will be difficult to market your hospital as a leader as well.

Research hospital data to cross-reference it against national and local hospital data to see the percentage of the market you have in a particular field to see how effective a marketing campaign might be. If you have a large market share in a particular specialty, the market for growth is smaller.

Sweeping reforms of the nation’s health care system including the move from volume-based to value-added performance, the empowering of patients to make decisions about their care and quality incentives (bonus or penalty) mean that any marketing plan this year must be different from previous years. Start with a blank sheet and follow these tips to create a hospital marketing plan with healthcare success:

SMART goals

Clearly define the business aims and how to quantify and measure them. Match your marketing with the hospital’s top-level objectives. Add to these your most marketable and profitable hospital departments, ongoing programs and community endeavours. Goals should be Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Tangible.

Best Practices for Hospitals

The basic purpose of a financial feasibility study is to determine if a project will be viable. A compiled or examined report that includes detailed reviews of operations and market demographics are used in hospitals that are building, renovating, extending or moving services from inpatient towards an outpatient model.

Any financial feasibility study will act as a business plan. Providing clarity and purpose, a financial feasibility study is crucial to the decision-making process, but will also help organizations maximize the success of their projects.

Here we list best practices for hospitals with regards to financial feasibility studies.

Debt capacity

Before launching a financial feasibility study, conduct a debt capacity analysis. Does the hospital have enough cash and investment reserves for the project for areas where borrowing is not possible, including initial training or to fund operations during lease-up? A debt capacity analysis won’t answer all the necessary project questions, but will help establish a framework for more detailed analysis.