(Press-News.org) Many people who receive a problematic medical bill don’t challenge it – but new USC Schaeffer Center research shows they are likely missing out on a chance for financial relief.
About 1 in 5 people said they recently received a medical bill they disagreed with or couldn’t afford, including 61.5% who said they contacted a billing office to address their concern, according to survey results published Aug. 30 in JAMA Health Forum. Most who reached out said they received some form of payment help or had their bill corrected.
It’s often up to patients to figure out for themselves if a medical bill is incorrect or how to secure financial assistance for a large bill. However, many people may think it’s too complex or too time-consuming – and ultimately not worth the effort. Of those who didn’t contact the billing office about a problematic bill they received, 86.1% said they didn’t think it would make a difference.
“Many people are hesitant to pick up the phone to question the accuracy of a problematic medical bill or explore financial options, but our findings indicate it’s worthwhile and typically takes less than one hour,” said lead author Erin L. Duffy, director of research training at the Schaeffer Center.
The study included 1,135 U.S. adults randomly selected from the Understanding America Study at USC Dornsife’s Center for Economic and Social Research between August and October 2023, and responses were weighted to be nationally representative.
Overall, about 1 in 4 who reached out for any reason had their bill corrected, while about 1 in 7 received a payment plan or a price drop. Smaller shares got financial help or had their bill canceled.
Taken together, these outcomes made a meaningful difference to patients, the researchers said.
For instance, 74% of those who said they specifically reached out about a billing error said the mistake was corrected. Of those who reached out about an unaffordable bill, 76% said they received some form of financial relief. For those who sought to negotiate, 62% said the price was dropped.
Most people who reported personally contacting a billing office about a problematic bill did so by telephone. The vast majority said they were comfortable communicating with the billing office, and most said the process took less than an hour and that they were treated with respect.
The likelihood of receiving a problematic bill did not significantly vary by health insurance source, education or income. However, people without a college degree, those with lower financial literacy and those lacking health insurance were less likely to contact a billing office, potentially exacerbating disparities in who’s burdened by medical debt.
Meanwhile, people who are more extroverted and have a less agreeable personality type, according to a commonly used standardized personality assessment, were more likely to reach out about a problematic bill.
Researchers said providing patients with more detailed written information about their bill and payment options when they’re billed could encourage more people to seek out relief.
“Current healthcare billing practices generally require patients to practice a lot of self-advocacy, and those who cannot self-advocate well are missing opportunities for financial relief,” said Erin Trish, study co-author and Schaeffer Center co-director. “Simpler billing processes and more transparency about financial options could make the system work better for patients.”
About the study
The study was co-authored by Melissa A. Frasco, a research scientist at the Schaeffer Center.
A joint enterprise between the USC Price School of Public Policy and the USC Mann School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, the USC Schaeffer Center for Health Policy & Economics is a flagship program of the USC Leonard D. Schaeffer Institute for Public Policy & Government Service.
END
It’s worth challenging that troubling medical bill, study finds
Most who sought billing help got some relief, but those who may struggle most are less likely to reach out
2024-08-30
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
New study finds Medicare Advantage (MA) enrollees experience similar declines in frailty over one year compared with Traditional Medicare (TM) enrollees
2024-08-30
Enrollment in Medicare Advantage (MA) plans is not associated with altered frailty trajectories compared with enrollment in Traditional Medicare (TM), according to research published today in JAMA Network Open.
In the article Frailty in Medicare Advantage Beneficiaries and Traditional Medicare Beneficiaries, lead author Sandra M. Shi, MD, MPH and colleagues suggest that more work is needed to better understand the health services needs of older adults with frailty.
“A growing proportion of the population is enrolling in Medicare Advantage (MA), which typically ...
Autoimmune sequelae after Delta or Omicron variant SARS-CoV-2 infection in a highly vaccinated cohort
2024-08-30
About The Study: This cohort study observed no significantly elevated long-term risk of autoimmune sequelae after SARS-CoV-2 Delta and Omicron BA.1 or BA.2 variant infection, except for a modestly increased risk of inflammatory bowel disease and bullous skin disorders in the hospitalized subgroup during the predominance of the Omicron variant. Booster vaccination appeared to mitigate the risk of long-term autoimmune sequelae.
Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Liang ...
Racial disparities in cancer stage at diagnosis and survival for adolescents and young adults
2024-08-30
About The Study: The findings of this study suggest that racial disparities in cancer stage at diagnosis and survival exist among adolescent and young adult patients when disaggregated according to federal guidelines, which has health policy and funding implications. These results support the need for tailored interventions and informed public policy to achieve cancer care equity for all races.
Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Kekoa Taparra, MD, PhD, email ktaparra@stanford.edu.
To ...
Structural equality and support index in early childhood education
2024-08-30
About The Study: This cohort study found that early childhood programming is associated with social determinants of health in adulthood. These findings reinforce the importance of early childhood education in addressing health disparities and contributing to healthier, more equitable communities and suggest that educational attainment is a key mechanism for health promotion.
Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Arthur J. Reynolds, PhD, email ajr@umn.edu.
To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/
(doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2024.32050)
Editor’s ...
Automated HER2 scoring in breast cancer images using deep learning and pyramid sampling
2024-08-30
HER2 is a critical protein that plays a pivotal role in breast cancer cell growth and aggressiveness. Its expression level is a key indicator for treatment decisions, including the use of HER2-targeted therapies. Currently, HER2 status assessment relies heavily on immunohistochemical (IHC) staining of tissue slides followed by manual inspection by pathologists. This process, though widely adopted, suffers from several limitations, including poor reproducibility among pathologists and extended turnaround times. These challenges are further exacerbated in resource-constrained ...
Functional information offers individualized adaptive cancer therapies
2024-08-30
BUFFALO, NY- August 30, 2024 – A new editorial was published in Volume 11 of Oncoscience on July 19, 2024, entitled, “Functional information offers individualized adaptive cancer therapies.”
As introduced in this editorial, the Oxford Computer Science Dictionary offers both general and technical definitions of information. Generally, information is anything that can cause a change in a human mind's opinion about the current state of the real world. Technically, information is anything that reduces the uncertainty of a system's state. Claude Shannon provided an objective measure of information, known as entropy (H), by mathematically defining ...
Low-quality video target detection based on EEG signal using eye movement alignment
2024-08-30
In a research paper, scientists from the Beijing Institute of Technology proposed an event related potential (ERP) extraction method to solve the asynchronous problem of low-quality video target detection, designed the time-frequency features based on continuous wavelet transform, and established an EEG decoding model based on neural characterization. The average decoding accuracy of 84.56% is achieved in pseudo-online test.
The new research paper, published July 4 in the journal Cyborg and Bionic Systems, introduces a low-quality ...
Data science coalition invites teachers and parents to have a say in the future of data science learning
2024-08-30
CHICAGO — Data science and data literacy are rapidly becoming essential skills for success across industry sectors and career fields. Now, Data Science 4 Everyone (DS4E) is inviting everyone — teachers, higher education faculty, parents, and students — to help shape what learning in this crucial area will look like.
It’s an area essential to success in today’s world and tomorrow’s. Nurses use data science skills when they read a patient’s chart; engineers analyze data to design hardware and products; and business owners use data to guide ...
Upcycling excess carbon dioxide with tiny microbes
2024-08-30
While some microbes can make people sick or spoil food, others are critical for survival. These tiny organisms can also be engineered to make specific molecules. Researchers reporting in ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering have rewired one such microbe to help tackle greenhouse gases in the atmosphere: It takes in carbon dioxide (CO2) gas and produces mevalonate, a useful building block for pharmaceuticals.
The increasing concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere has led to widespread global warming. To begin to address the problem, greenhouse gas emissions, including CO2, need to be significantly ...
ETRI’s CDMA commercialization technology honored as a ‘milestone’ by IEEE
2024-08-30
Korean researchers announced that Korea’s Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) commercialization technology, which was the world’s first successfully commercialized CDMA technology in 1996, has been listed on the ‘Milestones Program,’ a world-renowned program hosted by the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE). As a result, it has become Korea’s first technology to be recognized by a world-class association to contribute to the development of mankind and industrial innovation.
Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI) announced on June 11 that their ...
LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:
New antibody-drug conjugate shows promising efficacy in EGFR-mutated NSCLC patients
Iza-Bren in combination with osimertinib shows 100% response rate in EGFR-mutated NSCLC, phase II study finds
COMPEL study shows continuing osimertinib treatment through progression with the addition of chemotherapy improves progression-free survival in EGFR-mutated NSCLC
CheckMate 77T: Nivolumab maintains quality of life and reduces symptom deterioration in resectable NSCLC
Study validates AI lung cancer risk model Sybil in predominantly Black population at urban safety-net hospital
New medication lowered hard-to-control high blood pressure in people with chronic kidney disease
Innovative oncolytic virus and immunotherapy combinations pave the way for advanced cancer treatment
New insights into energy metabolism and immune dynamics could transform head and neck cancer treatment
Pennington Biomedical’s Dr. Steven Heymsfield named LSU Boyd Professor – LSU’s highest faculty honor
Study prompts new theory of human-machine communication
New method calculates rate of gene expression to understand cell fate
Researchers quantify rate of essential evolutionary process in the ocean
Innovation Crossroads companies join forces, awarded U.S. Air Force contract
Using new blood biomarkers, USC researchers find Alzheimer’s disease trial eligibility differs among various populations
Pioneering advances in in vivo CAR T cell production
Natural medicines target tumor vascular microenvironment to inhibit cancer growth
Coral-inspired pill offers a new window into the hidden world of the gut
nTIDE September2025 Jobs Report: Employment for people with disabilities surpasses prior high
When getting a job makes you go hungry
Good vibrations could revolutionize assisted reproductive technology
More scrutiny of domestic fishing fleets at ports could help deter illegal fishing
Scientists transform plastic waste into efficient CO2 capture materials
Discovery of North America’s role in Asia’s monsoons offers new insights into climate change
MD Anderson and Phoenix SENOLYTIX announce strategic cross-licensing agreement to enhance inducible switch technologies for cell and gene therapies
Researchers discover massive geo-hydrogen source to the west of the Mussau Trench
Even untouched ecosystems are losing insects at alarming rates, new study finds
Adaptive visible-infrared camouflage with wide-range radiation control for extreme ambient temperatures
MD Anderson research highlights for September 5, 2025
Physicists create a new kind of time crystal that humans can actually see
Reminder: Final media invitation for EPSC-DPS2025 and details of media briefings on RAMSES and Juno missions
[Press-News.org] It’s worth challenging that troubling medical bill, study findsMost who sought billing help got some relief, but those who may struggle most are less likely to reach out