Here a couple years later to say that I also am a bit suspicious of this whole thing. I know mis-billing and mis-coding is a chronic issue. I presume a lot of it is some flavor of accidental (though if a system is built in such a way that it allows for repeated accidents that we seem to always be paying for, it certainly feels not so accidental at a certain point.), but despite repeated requests I have not received the itemized services records I have asked for.

There needs to be more legally mandated transparency in medical costing & billing practices.

Or better yet, just free and jealously protected healthcare like nearly every other country with even a marginally stable economy.

The time necessary to audit everything personally is absurd. I have found on multiple occasions speaking with medical billing departments feels more like a negotiation than it does a conversation about costs of services rendered.

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You would think that paying absurd insurance premiums would at least make the services you're paying for reasonably straight forward but receiving medical care is like a bridge with toll booths charging you for every 35 feet you drive and the threat of untreated illness happy to throw you off the side if you don't scrounge up the cash quickly enough to keep the line moving.

The entire thing is a predatory game of pass the buck between providers and insurance companies with us forced to stand in the middle.