From personal experience I would like to remind you to check your bills from your doctor's office and for the durable medical equipment. If you don't understand it, seek help from your family or from a local senior center. You may be trying to pay a bill you don't owe. I have an oxygen concentrator that I use at night and Medicare finished paying for it long ago. (For those of you who don't know, after you have had a piece of durable medical equipment, Medicare will pay for it instead of renting it and it then belongs to you.) Many times, Medicare will pay for your bill but it doesn't get posted to your account. If you think you are paying more than you should for a bill, get help to check it.

Thanks for this great advice, Craig! I had no idea that this could be a problem. Do you think that it's due to a lack of communication between Medicare and the doctors or medical suppliers? I feel like it's something important enough that it shouldn't be overlooked and left to confuse Medicare users.

I should have said after Medicare has rented the equipment for so long a time and they decide that you will continue to need it they will buy the equipment. A lot of times I think the durable medical equipment just doesn't post the payment to your account. Medicare will send you a notice that they have purchased the equipment for you. If after this notice you continue to receive bills from the durable medical equipment company, you need to contact the company you are renting the equipment from and let them know that you received the notice from Medicare. I don't like to have bills outstanding so I was paying for my oxygen concentrator for a while after Medicare had purchased it. When I notified the durable medical equipment company the equipment had been purchased they investigated and I got a check back from them.

With any medical bills and insurance this is the only way to go. You really need to keep good track of your medical bills just in case and also this way you know that you are only paying for what you "have" to pay for.

You can ask for an itemized hospital bill but they are huge! It is a good idea though to check every bill for mistakes. I once checked my telephone bill and found I had been switched to a company I had never heard of. I called and had a devil of a time getting changed back to what I was on.

I always get itemised bills, without fail. I had a set of surgical equipment turn up on one bill when I hadn't been near a hospital.

The CPAP my wife had was rented for just three months, then they paid it off. It was a big saving.

This is very good advice. I read recently that studies had shown that almost 50% of all medical bills have some sort of error on them. Often the person coding the bill is trying to read fairly illegible doctors and nurses notes so it's easy to mix things up.

Excellent advice with any kind of bill! I have been hospitalized several times over the past few years and every bill except one had charges for unreceived services on it. I would think the hospital was deliberately scamming except that it was three different hospitals. I think the billing department just mixes things up because they are overloaded with work.