Medical Billing Mistakes Cost Ohio Patients Thousands of Dollars

June 25, 2012 | Crandall & Pera Law
Medical Billing Mistakes Cost Ohio Patients Thousands of Dollars

According to Cleveland's News Channel 5's Investigators, an alarming statistic was released by the Medical Billing Advocates of America, a group of experts who help patients with fraudulent billing activity:  mistakes are found on 90 percent of the approximately 11,000 medical bills they personally review each year.

Medical billing errors are placing a heavy burden on U.S. taxpayers. Medicare estimates it spent $28.8 billion in improper payments in 2011, while Ohio ranked eighth in improper payments in the U.S. in 2010.

Patients are commonly charged twice for the same service, charged for services they did not need or even charged for services they did not receive, according to the report.

"There's no check and balance system. None," said Pat Willis, a Cleveland-area patient advocate for the Medical Billing Advocates of America. "Nobody's checking out these insurance companies. Nobody's checking out these hospitals. They're just running rampant."

Willis has seen bills where patients have been charged up to $53 for latex gloves, $22 per cotton swab...even $1,000 for a toothbrush. Read the complete details here:

Most northeast Ohio and U.S. medical bills contain mistakes, patient advocate says

"The single largest problem in health care today," says Steve Crandall, "is the insurance companies and the control they have over how much a health care provider can bill patients and how much they will pay them to do that."

As a top rated medical malpractice attorney in Ohio and Kentucky, Crandall knows the harmful implications that inflated medical bills cause on a patient's finances. "The overbilling and abuse of patients and their pocketbook reminds me of the government waste which gets uncovered from time to time, like the U.S. Navy paying $200,000 for a hammer or $1 million for a toilet seat," says Crandall. "They both have the same thing in common: someone has gotten away with billing people like this in the past and will keep doing it until they are caught and stopped."

If you have any questions regarding medical malpractice throughout Ohio and Kentucky, contact Steve Crandall.