Online tools that provide assistance with paying medical bills

A very costly and significant issue for consumers who are trying to manage their health care is medical billing errors. Examples of these errors can include being billed twice for a health-care service provided to being charged out-of-network prices for in-network services. If an error is discovered on the bill, consumers usually  have to take up the error and dispute with their medical provider or insurance provider, which can be a lengthy, difficult, stressful process.

But you can get help online. Some online health-care services include :

• SmartMedicalConsumer, can help alert consumers to errors in their medical bills. The online service has sophisticated, automatic error detection, which will notify users through a message box at the top of the screen if any potential errors are detected, and it will also indicate where those errors can be found. SmartMedicalConsumer's technology works by learning for previous use. It learns from previous entries by a user, what is covered, by how much, and also the type of coverage. It then uses that information as a comparison for when new entries of medical bills occur, and it alerts the user to discrepancies in the billing or mismatches. In addition to this error detection, SmartMedicalConsumer also has medical-billing experts available that monitor an online forum for members to ask questions about their medical bills.

• Revolution Health also offers an service. Many aspects are similar to SmartMedicalConsumer, but Revolution Health goes one step further by offering to call up insurance companies and fight over disputed medical bills on a user's behalf. Customers of this service must sign a consent form and fax or send over the applicable records to participate in this service.