My dentist is not the ER but just as expensive. Latest procedure will bill at approximately $3K and he didn’t charge for the prior experiment that failed. He expects most of his patients to take his billing plan or pay with credit card. He’ll drop 5% for checks. I told him I’m paying him with an envelope stuffed with cash. He came down another 5%. Told him he had a deal and now I have $300 for a new toy

Ive been screwed by ER visits for a couple decades, as my daughters go there when they go critical (young people, they don't go to the doctor when they should at the early signs of symptoms). I'm on a two year ER payment plan right now, and have not set up payments for two additional ER bills sitting on my desk. I have good insurance, but yea, ER billing royally sucks. I hate paying for everyone else with no insurance.

If you didn’t get a good breakdown of the charges, then request that and go over thoroughly. I had a ~$3500 bill for 12 stitches a few years back. The original bill had nothing other than the amount owed, so I requested a detailed bill. We couldn’t decipher the codes, so my wife went to the hospital and tracked down someone in billing to explain the codes. We found that we were double billed on one charge and triple billed on another. We ended up owing about $1300 after they got the bill right.

My wife is an accountant, and she handles bills and such. We/she scrutinizes our medical bills. Our local hospitals do some negotiations, certainly discounts for paying off an account, and most importantly, is very amenable to setting up payment plans. So even if you’re unsuccessful in reducing the bill significantly, you should be able to set up a payment plan for what you owe, minimizing you immediate cash outlay.