Medical Billing

If you need to deal with too many medical bills yourself, here is some solution for you. Decoding your hospital bill is too daunting a task. Now you may consider doing what some peeved patients are doing: Pay someone else to do it. A growing group of so-called medical billing advocates will wade through your hospital invoices for you. While still a small group, they've fought to make insurers cover out of pocket expenses and hospital overcharges, like a $12 "mucus recovery system" payment for a box of tissues in one case and a 1,004.50 toothbrush fee in another.

There's no certification process for these consultants, many of whom come from the insurance or medical fields, but the Medical Billing Advocates of America (www.billadvocates.com) requires members to adhere to a code of ethics. Keep in mind these hired guns aren't for minor billing aches: Most charge $30 to $150 an hour or a 10 to 50 percent cut of whatever they win for you in savings.