I have been fighting these battles for much of the last ten years and this article fails to explain a dynamic that is happening here, at least where I am (calif

I have been fighting these battles for much of the last ten years and this article fails to explain a dynamic that is happening here, at least where I am (california). I'll give my most recent thing that ended up in collections (which you can easily ignore, it doesn't affect your credit at all in some states). I had a pretty intensive surgery. I had a copay, which was shown to me before the surgery. I signed it, paid, think everything is good. However, in the background, which happens often, the insurance company and the hospital/doctor are still haggling about who owes what. Eventually they can't come to a decision, and the hospital punts it to the patient or collections. Even better - say you do pay this “surprise” bill. Sometimes the insurer eventually pays up. Guess what happens then? Does the doctor/hospital notify you then that you overpaid? Very rarely. For me it was a $800 bill on top of the thousands I already paid for anasthesia (and some other stuff). Hospitals and insurers are putting patients in the middle of their disputes and it rarely ends up well for the patient. Hospitals acting like they're somehow the victim here is extremely rich from my perspective, they are at least half of the entire problem. I recommend letting them go to collections and then disputing it there. Lots of times these collections agencies use shady practices that give you some good leverage, or it's a double billing scenario like I described above.