Our guest today has a three step process that will ensure that you’re paying as little as possible for your medical care! This is good to know because the leading cause of personal bankruptcy is… you guessed it, medical bills! An estimated 100 million Americans have amassed nearly $200 billion in medical debt, and nearly 1 in 5 adults have medical debt in collections according to a study by the Journal of the American Medical Association. And that’s why we’re happy to have Dr. Virgie Bright Ellington joining us today- as a doctor and an insurance executive, she has had an inside look at our broken healthcare system, and her book: Crush Medical Debt, outlines the steps that we need to take to ensure that we’re not paying money that we don’t owe. We discuss the most common medical bill ‘errors’, why it’s important to ask for CPT codes, what to do with the CPT codes once you have them, how to avoid getting outrageous bills to begin with, and much more today!

Additional links:

• Dr. Virgie – Check out Dr. Virgie’s site which is also where you can find some of those free resources she mentioned!

• Medical bill help – When you need some assistance from a non-profit to help negotiate down your medical bills, check out DollarFor.org and the Patient Advocate Foundation– both exist to offer relief, whether it’s forgiveness based on income or appealing an insurance claim.

• Credit Card Tool – Looking for the right credit card for you? Then check out our new credit card tool that’ll help you to easily filter through all the cards based on your preferred airline, whether or not they have an annual fee, or simply by the cashback offer! Just toggle the sliders and you’ll know which card to consider.

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During this episode we enjoyed a Paso Fino Porter by Horsefly Brewing- thanks to Marck and Kaitlyn for sending this one our way! And please help us to spread the word by letting friends and family know about How to Money! Hit the share button, subscribe if you’re not already a regular listener, and give us a quick review in Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Help us to change the conversation around personal finance and get more people doing smart things with their money!

Best friends out!