How to Negotiate Anything

Medical Bills

Consider this: To maintain cash flow, “many doctors will knock 5 or 10 percent off if you pay up front,” says Rocky Fredrickson, M.D., a former chief medical officer for Providence Health and Services. Uninsured patients can get even bigger discounts (“50 percent or more,” says Martin Bashir, M.D., a gastroenterologist in Washington, D.C.) for procedures that doctors and dentists usually bill to health plans, because medical practitioners are used to getting less than full price from insurance companies. “The discounted rate doctors give a patient is still far better than what an insurance company pays,” Bashir says.

Try this: Find out what doctors and dentists typically bill for services and how much insurers pay at vimo.com. Negotiate the bill before your procedure. Offer to pay up front in exchange for a discount.