If you have ever needed to visit the hospital for any reason, then you are already familiar with how complex the billing process can be. Different insurance companies will cover different expenses, and every one of them for different reasons, and there is also the added complications of your income and previous health history, and what procedures, if any, were performed on you. With so many factors to take into account, you might be wondering exactly how hospitals determine what you will be billed for. If you are, then this is what you should know:

Chargemaster

For every hospital, there is a very detailed and thorough guide to determine what a patient will be charged for. This is called the chargemaster, and it is what each hospital in America uses to bill its patients. While it might sound like nothing more than a simple list, the chargemaster is quite …