Patients Negotiate for Health Care

Facilitated by the number of such companies and the ease with which they can accessed, patients are increasingly taking advantage of web-based personal claims adjusters who review doctor and hospital bills and will negotiate on patients' behalf to get a better price.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services expects health care spending in the United States to more than double to over $4 trillion a year, a fifth of the gross domestic product, over the next decade and overall out-of-pocket expenses for consumers are expected to rise more than 5 percent every year.

Currently, more than 12 percent of working-age adults have out-of-pocket medical costs greater than 5 percent of their annual household income, according to the Center for Studying Health System Change, a Washington research group.  As a result, patients are becoming more comfortable discussing price during their doctor visit and, although pricing is increasingly available to consumers, it's the out-of-pocket expense they're really interested in.

With out-of-pocket expenses for hospital patients expected to increase 9.1 percent in 2007, alone, expect to see use of this type of web-based service increase.■