[WalterBright]

One way is to show up in person and ask. It's a lot easier to negotiate face to face than over the phone. It's the same when negotiating a price for a car, a hotel, stay, etc. I answered your other question elsewhere in this topic.

If the bill is potentially one of those crippling high ones, I'd suggest it's worthwhile to invest the time doing this, despite it being maddening.

[rcraft]

Hmm. Driving from provider to provider when trying to "shop around" is really not that feasible for most people.

But I suppose it could work better. I'm skeptical though. Finding the appropriate "accounting" folks in person would be a nightmare. A lot of the hospitals and providers I've dealt with use "third party" billing so your in person strategy with these types of parties would basically be impossible.