It's called price blindness and anyone who’s experienced it won't soon forget the ordeal or the bill.
Everyone has been there: you’re experiencing a health problem, you run to the nearest hospital and then leave with a huge bill – maybe thousands of dollars.
Price blindness takes over when you're flustered, sick or just not thinking clearly and you haven't done your homework.
That very thing happened to Joe Stanfill, who took his daughter for a 10-minute medical procedure to install ear tubes. He left the hospital with a bill of nearly $4,900.
Most of us have heard about the Kelley Bluebook for cars. Now a free research tool called Healthcare Bluebook can save you thousands of dollars in medical bills.
Stanfill used it to research the fair price for his daughter's procedure or what he should have been charged. He was able to lower his bill to just over $700 – saving more than $4,000 just by going back to hospital with that information.
If you think you have been over-charged, Healthcare Bluebook says you can present the fair pricing information to a medical provider and they may even lower your bill.
