She got billed $1,680 for a doctor she never saw
How one phone call and one specific ask turned a billing mistake into $0 owed.
Hi there, my friend.
I wanted to start this week with a sincere thank you for being part of the Ask, Save, Earn community. Whether this is the first post you’ve ever read here or you’ve been with me for years, I’m honored that you’re here.
And the community is growing! The list of free subscribers has grown 34% so far in 2026 and has more than doubled since June 1, 2025. That means the world to me, and I promise to keep bringing you meaningful content that can have a real impact on your financial life.
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Collecting incredible stories
Part of the beauty of a growing community is having more and more people’s wisdom to learn from. That includes you!
Little in my work inspires me more than talking to interesting people about cool things they did and then sharing what others can learn from their experience.
With that in mind, I’m working on a long-term project to collect stories from people who have learned something worth sharing.
I’m interested in the lessons people learned about money, work, risk, happiness, reinvention, relationships, resilience, and everything in between.
If you know someone whose story deserves to be told, I’d love an introduction.
And of course, if you have a story to share yourself, please reach out via this email, the Substack app or even in the comments below.
We all have far more wisdom than we realize. Help me share some of yours with others!
One of the most important pieces of wisdom from my book
My book, “Ask Questions, Save Money, Make More: How To Take Control Of Your Financial Life,” touches on everything from mortgages and credit cards to garage sales and wedding parties. It is about helping people pay less, earn more and keep more of their hard-earned money by asking the right questions in various everyday situations.
Nowhere is that more important than at the doctor’s office, and that’s the subject of one of my very favorite quotes from the book.
“Never, ever think that it’s not OK to negotiate a medical bill in the United States.”
Those are the wise words of the great Virgie Ellington, MD, the author of “What Your Doctor Wants You To Know To Crush Medical Debt.”
Read it again. Commit it to memory. Tell your friends about it, too.
It is that important.
Medical debt can be enormous, pervasive and can, in no uncertain terms, wreck people’s financial lives.
And here’s one more quote from Dr. Ellington:
“We assume that whatever bill we get is accurate, and nothing could be further from the truth.”
Don’t believe it? Consider this stat…
An estimated 80% of medical bills have errors. That’s a staggering number. It is absolute proof that you should never pay your first medical bill.
Mistakes aren’t always obvious
I did more than 110 interviews for my book, including plenty about medical billing. I heard multiple success stories about people negotiating their bills and saving significant money.
One of my favorite stories in the book came from my friend Kathryn Tuggle...
Tuggle, an award-winning journalist and cofounder and chief content officer of HerMoney Media, has danced for most of her life, resulting in chronic plantar fasciitis, which can cause excruciating pain. In 2019, she carefully selected a podiatrist in-network with her health insurance, meaning that the visit shouldn’t have cost more than a small co-pay. But she received a bill for $1,680. “So of course, I freak out,” she says, “thinking that maybe I got it wrong” She reviewed the bill, which indicated an out-of-network visit but no other specifics. She called the doctor’s office to request an itemized bill. “Everything the doctor had done was accurate on the itemized bill, so I’m sitting there thinking, Maybe I am going to have to pay this.*
Then she spotted the problem. The very bottom of the bill listed a different doctor than the one Tuggle had seen. Some podiatrists in that group accepted Tuggle’s insurance, but others didn’t, making them out-of-network — a common and often costly problem in hospitals and medical practices. She quickly contacted the practice to inform them of the clerical error, and after about two weeks of pushback the practice finally corrected the bill, leaving her owing nothing.
Tuggle understands why people sometimes hesitate to push back when they suspect billing mistakes. Correcting them can take a lot of time and prove frustrating. Ultimately, however, it’s well worth your time. “I probably spent four hours dealing with this problem to save close to $1,700. That’s a darn good hourly rate.”
I would say so.
What she did right
Tuggle did a lot of smart things in that situation, but the best thing she did was simply to not give up. Medical providers know full well that many people who try to lower their medical bills or to correct inaccurate bills will throw in the towel before the battle is won.
It is taking forever. It isn’t going to work. This is a waste of my time.
Medical providers are betting on you feeling that way. They’re playing the long game, doing everything they can to drag stuff out so you get so frustrated that you eventually give up.
Don’t do it.
“[People] throw their hands up because they assume there's nothing they can do, and the system seems so complicated. It seems like such a battle between David and Goliath, and they just don't realize that David can win."
The late journalist Marshall Allen, author of “Never Pay The First Bill (And Other Ways To Fight The Healthcare System And Win),” told me that in interviews for my book. Tuggle is further proof that he’s right.
Another of the most important things Tuggle did right was to ask for an itemized bill. Oftentimes, the first bill you receive will lack important details. It is crucial — whether you’re trying to negotiate a lower cost or just ensure that you’re getting charged for what you actually had done — to ask for an itemized bill with CPT codes.
CPT codes are standardized numeric or alphanumeric codes used by the healthcare industry to document and bill for medical, surgical, and diagnostic services. The first bill you get may not include them. If it doesn’t, you should ask.
When you get the bill, find the codes for the services you had done, then Google them to make sure you were billed for what you had done. If you were, then you can start thinking about negotiating that bill down. If you weren’t, contact the provider’s billing department to get it corrected, especially if you were billed for a more expensive service than you actually got.
For Tuggle, the issue was even simpler than that, though. They listed the wrong doctor on her bill, and that changed everything. But even then, with an obvious, provable mistake, it still took time to actually get it fixed. Tuggle was persistent, however, because she knew that it was worth her time.
She was right, and her efforts paid off in a big way. The next time you question a medical bill, something similar could happen to you, but only if you’re willing to put in the work.
More on medical debt
I’ll never stop talking about this topic because it's just that important.
Here’s more on Allen and his mission…
And here’s a previous story I wrote about managing medical debt…
There’s so much money involved, and people have so much more power than they realize. I’m on a mission to help them wield it, and I’m happy to have you along with me.
Until next time!
Matt
In my case it wasn’t a clerical error, it was outright, naked fraud. I went to the ER. During the 4 hours I waited in an empty ER to be seen, my symptoms resolved. I was just about to leave when they called me in. In response to the doctor asking what I needed, I said nothing, I’m feeling better. That was the extent of the conversation, after which I left.
Imagine my surprise at getting a bill for $750. I requested and received the medical record, which described an examination, one that would have required several minutes and at least one instrument, that never took place.
This was no error. It was attempted fraud — they thought my insurance would cover it (it didn’t — I’m on a high deductible plan) and that nobody would question it. When I asked the ER director how an examination that never took place got in my record, he quickly said “the bill is canceled” and hung up.