[mywittyname]

True story: my partner's department can't just sort denies by highest cost because they literally do not know how much the procedure actually costs and nobody in billing/finance can tell them either.

She came home one day feeling pretty good about overturning a $180k denial. She checked back a few weeks later, and found the paid in full amount to be in the neighborhood of $10k after "negotiated discounts."

The system is fucked. Had the denial gone through, that person would have been on the hook for the full 180k. (Or, to be more accurate, the hospital would have negotiated for $10k from the patient and written the remaining 170k off of their taxes)