Updated July 9, 2018

As New Jersey personal injury attorneys, clients frequently ask us about the payment of medical bills after an accident or injury. The answers usually depend on a multitude of factors, including the type of accident and the type of available insurance coverage.
In 2012, the NY Times published a great article, highlighting the confusing, and often conflicting, area of medical billing: Navigating the Labyrinth of Medical Bills.

Hospital care tends to be the most confounding, and experts say the charges you see on your bill are usually completely unrelated to the cost of providing the services (at hospitals, these list prices are called the “charge master file”). “The charges have no rhyme or reason at all,” Gerard Anderson, director of the Center for Hospital Finance and Management at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. “Why is 30 minutes in the operating room $2,000 and not $1,500? There is absolutely no basis for setting that charge. It is not based upon the cost, and it’s not based upon the market forces, other than the whim of the C.F.O. of the hospital.”