Complaint Against Hospital Overbilling

When and how to use this letter

Never argue against a lump-sum hospital bill; always demand the itemised version first. Hospitals are required to provide a line-by-line bill, and the overbilling almost always hides in specific lines: consumables, medicines, and investigations. Once you have the itemised bill, go through it with a highlighter and mark every item you question, every duplicate entry, and every service you are sure was not provided.

Compare medicine and consumable prices against standard pharmacy rates. It is common to find the same surgical gloves, syringes, or drugs billed at two or three times the market price. For major items, note the MRP printed on the packaging versus what the bill shows. Photograph the itemised bill page by page so you have your own copy.

Send this letter to the hospital's billing head and the medical superintendent, not the discharge counter. List the disputed items with amounts, state the total you are disputing, and demand a corrected bill within seven days. Keep your tone factual; item numbers and amounts speak louder than anger.

The non-obvious leverage: if you were insured, send a copy of your dispute to the insurer's claims team as well. Insurers audit hospital bills aggressively because inflated billing costs them money, and a hospital that is inflating your bill is usually inflating the insurer's too. An insurer's query often achieves in days what a patient's complaint cannot in weeks.

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