title: Patients find success haggling as health-care costs climb.
abstract: In small but growing numbers, Americans are taking an innovative approach to controlling health-care costs: They're haggling with their doctors. Fed up with mounting health bills, consumers ae getting as much as 30% off everything from eye exams to fertility procedures just by agreeing to pay upfront. Others are holding their doctors over a barrel by waiting a few months to pay the bill. Already, a new cottage industry of middlemen who negotiate healthcare bills for patients report their haggling business is up as much as 25% in the last two years.
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Costello
mesh_terms: D003669:Deductibles and Coinsurance; D005251:Fees, Medical; D005382:Financing, Personal; D017722:Hospital Charges; D006801:Humans; D017008:Negotiating; D010358:Patient Participation / Q000191:economics*; D014481:United States