Professional organizer Julie Bestry speaks from personal experience on how to organize medical billings and paperwork to avoid bankruptcy in her article “Don’t Let Hospital Billing Errors Bleed You Dry“:
Harvard University research indicates that approximately 62% of U.S. personal bankruptcies are caused by unaffordable medical bills. Given that, it’s vital to keep track of medical billing, particularly hospital billing, to make sure you are being charged a fair and accurate amount. In fact, some medical billing experts believe that up to 80% of all hospital and medical bills contain at least one error, underlining the importance of vigilance in scrutinizing your medical billing paperwork.
She discusses how to detect errors in your bills and also has a wonderful guide to how to organize this paperwork:
- Vital Signs: Organizing For A Medical Emergency, Part 1
- Vital Signs: Gathering Information During/After A Medical Emergency–Part 2
- Vital Signs: Maintaining Your Family’s Medical Records–Part 1 (Paper)
- Vital Signs: Maintaining Your Family’s Medical Records–Part 2 (Digital)
These five posts are a fantastic resource. Again, this is a time when I hope that you won’t ever have to use this information.