Facing sky-high medical bills? Your hospital may have overcharged you

A Colorado man’s emergency stomach surgery highlights the exceedingly complex — and sometimes inaccurate — system of pricing at some hospitals.

After Blake Pfeifer, a veteran plumber in Colorado Springs, Colorado, underwent emergency stomach surgery at a nearby nonprofit hospital in 2022, he struggled to understand the bills flooding in for his weeklong stay.

The initial charge for the procedure at the University of Colorado Health Memorial Hospital Central was $104,000, his records show. Because Pfeifer had no insurance and would be paying out of pocket, he was quoted a discounted price of $58,124.

He said he called the hospital to get clarity on the bills but got nowhere. He began paying some of them and was pursued by a collection agency on others. Then he sought the help of a patient advocacy group.

“I’ve always paid my bills,” Pfeifer, 63, said. “I wanted a little better explanation.”

The group he worked with, Patient Rights Advocate.org, found that some of his charges were far higher than the amounts UCHealth reported under a federal price transparency rule that went into effect in 2021. And that wasn’t the only notable finding: Only 25% of Pfeifer’s charges showed up on the hospital’s required price list and therefore could not be compared at all.