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Understanding your bill

Understanding your itemized bill

5 min read · Plain-English guide

The single most useful thing you can do with a confusing medical bill is get the itemized version. Here's how to read it once you have it.

Summary bill vs itemized statement

The bill mailed to you is usually a summary. The itemized statement lists every individual charge with a code, a description, a date, and a price. Errors hide in summaries and become visible in itemized statements.

The codes you'll see

CPT codes are five-digit codes describing procedures and services, like 70450 for a CT scan of the head.
Visit level codes (like 99281 through 99285 for ER visits) describe how complex your visit was billed as.

Good to knowYou don't need to memorize codes. Searching any CPT code plus "description" tells you in seconds what you were billed for.

What to look for, line by line

Repeats. The same code, same date, same price appearing twice.
Things that didn't happen. Medications or supplies you never received.
Many small lab lines. Panels of tests are often supposed to be billed as one bundled item.

Don't want to decode it alone?

Upload the itemized statement, or even the summary, and we'll review every line for you.