Guides
Practical, plain-English playbooks for dealing with medical bills. Written by negotiators, free for everyone.
How to negotiate medical bills, step by step
Hospital prices are opening offers, not final numbers. The exact sequence professional negotiators use to cut a bill, including the scripts, the benchmarks, and the mistakes that cost people thousands.
How to read an itemized hospital bill
The summary bill hospitals mail you hides almost everything. Here is how to request the itemized version and what to look for line by line.
Charity care: the hospital discount nobody tells you about
Most nonprofit hospitals are legally required to offer free or discounted care based on income. Few patients are ever told they qualify.
Your insurer denied the claim. Now what?
A denial is the start of a process, not the end of one. Most denials are overturned when patients appeal correctly, yet most people never appeal.
The No Surprises Act, explained in plain English
Since 2022, federal law bans most surprise out-of-network bills. Here is what it covers, what it does not, and how to use it.
Negotiating a hospital bill when you are uninsured
Self-pay patients are billed the highest sticker prices in the building, which means they also have the most room to negotiate.
What medical debt can and cannot do to your credit
The rules changed dramatically in the last few years. Medical debt hurts your credit far less than collectors want you to believe.