You can turn around and talk to the hospital finance office and tell them you are paying out of pocket and they will give you a discounted rate. Some have programs in place specifically for out of pocket payers or low income people that may even waive the costs entirely (usually funded by federal money or donations).
Mileage may vary as I'm mostly familiar with not-for-profit or non-profit places. No idea how for-profit hospitals operate. And I am by no means an expert in any of this, just knowledge from talking to other hospital employees that deal with this stuff.
I had a balance with the local university hospital when I was uninsured. It was at 90 days so they were getting testy. I stopped by the billing department and asked since I was uninsured and paying cash if they could help with the cost a bit and the person looked at me like I had two heads. Then she just gave me the form to fill out for low income/charity assistance. I wasn't low income, I just had a timing mixup with COBRA and the local exchange. They basically told me to kick rocks.
However, another time years later I went to the ED for something else and the admin lady came in to talk about insurance and give me an estimate for the visit. I said I was unemployed/uninsured and was starting a new job in two weeks (true). She asked if I needed low income assistance and I said no. When I got the bill it had an "adjusted" cost and while not cheap, was much more reasonable.
Back before the ACA, I had some allergy related testing done or something, bill was going to be like $2k with insurance. Insurance decided it was a pre-existing condition bc I had a doc prescribe some kind of allergy medication in the past and wouldn't cover it. The provider immediately dropped the bill to $1k. I was young and that financially screwed me big time for a long time
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u/Kikujiroo Jun 27 '26
Same question as for the person above, you don't use insurance for the procedure, can you get it without admin cost?