Medical Billing Rights: Know What You Owe and How to Fight Errors

When you get a medical bill that doesn’t make sense, you’re not alone. Medical billing rights, the legal protections patients have when facing hospital and provider charges. These rights exist because billing errors are common—up to 80% of medical bills have mistakes, according to a 2023 study by the Journal of the American Medical Association. You don’t have to pay what you don’t owe, and you don’t have to accept a bill just because it came in the mail.

Insurance claims, the process of getting your health plan to pay for care are often the source of confusion. If your insurer denies a claim, you have the right to appeal. Hospitals can’t charge you more than the agreed-upon rate with your insurance. If you’re uninsured, federal law requires hospitals to offer financial assistance if your income is below a certain level. And medical debt, unpaid medical bills that go to collections can’t be reported to credit agencies until 180 days after the first bill—giving you time to fix errors or set up payments.

You’re not powerless. You can request an itemized bill, compare it to your Explanation of Benefits (EOB), and ask for corrections. Many people don’t know they can negotiate bills—even after they’re sent to collections. Some hospitals will reduce charges by 50% or more if you ask. And if a bill looks wrong, it probably is. Common errors include duplicate charges, services you never got, or being billed at out-of-network rates when you were in-network.

These rights matter because medical bills are the leading cause of bankruptcy in the U.S. But they’re also fixable. The posts below show real cases: how someone caught a $3,000 error on a single MRI bill, how a patient fought off a collections notice using federal law, and how one person got $12,000 in medical debt erased by asking for financial aid. You’ll also learn how to read your EOB, what to say when calling billing departments, and how to avoid surprise bills before you even walk into a clinic.