DueEasy: Check a Medical Bill Before You Pay It

How this works

1. Triage.
Answer five questions. Get the right first move for your situation, in the right order.

2. Assistance check.
See if your income may qualify you for hospital financial assistance before you pay anything.

3. Appeal builder.
Enter the facts from your denial letter. Get a finished appeal letter, a records checklist, and your deadline.

4. Bill vs EOB matcher.
Line up every charge on the bill against the EOB. Flags duplicates and amounts that do not match, then drafts the call script.

5. Estimate checker.
No insurance, or paying yourself? Compare your final bill to your Good Faith Estimate and see if you can dispute the gap.

This tool gives general information and document help. It is not legal advice and not medical advice. Your denial letter and your plan documents control your exact rights and deadlines.

Step 1: Do you owe this bill at all?

Check anything that sounds like your situation.

Insurance denied my claim, or denied a treatment my doctor ordered It was emergency care, or a doctor I did not choose treated me at a hospital in my network I had no insurance or paid for myself, and I got a written cost estimate before the care The bill says I owe more than my Explanation of Benefits says I owe Paying this bill would be a real financial hardship for my household

Step 2: Could the hospital write some of this off?

Nonprofit hospitals must have a financial assistance policy. Many patients who qualify never apply. This check uses the 2026 federal poverty guidelines for the 48 contiguous states and DC. Each hospital sets its own income limits, often between 200 and 300 percent of the poverty level, so treat this as a strong signal, not a guarantee.

People in your household

Household income per year, before taxes

Step 3: Build your appeal

Copy the facts from your denial letter. For most private and Marketplace plans you have 180 days from the denial notice to file an internal appeal. Medicare and Medicaid use shorter windows, and the deadline calculator below adjusts for your plan type. Your letter is still the source that counts, so enter the deadline your letter gives you if it lists one.

Your full name

Insurance company

Member ID

Claim number or denial reference

Doctor or facility

Service or treatment denied

Date of service, or date care was requested

Date on the denial letter

Plan type

Why did they say no?

Anything specific that supports your case, in your own words (optional) Deadline on your denial letter (optional)

Your appeal letter

Your letter will appear here.

Records checklist: send these with your appeal

Your checklist will appear here after you build your packet.

Privacy: this page stores information only in your own browser if you tap Save on this device. Nothing is uploaded. Erase everything removes the saved copy. If your insurer still says no after your internal appeal, you generally have the right to an external review by an independent reviewer, and the reviewer's decision binds the plan. Under the federal standard you have 4 months from the final denial notice to request it, and some states set shorter windows, so do not sit on a final denial. Your denial letter and your state department of insurance can tell you how to file. The No Surprises Help Desk is 1-800-985-3059.

Step 4: Bill vs EOB matcher

Add one row for each line on the bill. The EOB amount is what your insurance says you owe for that line. If the bill asks for more, that difference is your first dispute. Rows with the same code, same date, and same billed amount get flagged as possible duplicates.

Provider call script

Your call script will appear here after you check the bill.

Step 5: Good Faith Estimate checker

For patients with no insurance, or who chose to pay for themselves. If your final bill from a provider is at least $400 more than that provider's written Good Faith Estimate, federal rules generally let you dispute the bill through the patient provider dispute process, within 120 days of the first bill. Keep both documents, they are the whole case.

Provider or facility

Good Faith Estimate amount ($)

Final bill amount ($)

Date of the first bill

Step 6: If you hit a wall

Three endgames for when the first moves do not work, plus the free human help that exists for each one. DueEasy cannot file anything for you, so this step hands you the exact next door to knock on.

Your appeal was denied again: ask for external review

After a final internal denial, most private and Marketplace plan members can ask for external review: an independent reviewer who does not work for your plan reads the case, and the decision binds the plan. In a four state study of these reviews, about 46 percent of denials were overturned. Almost nobody files, mostly because nobody tells them the right exists. Under the federal standard you have 4 months from the final denial notice to request it, and some states set shorter windows.

Date on the final denial letter

How to file and what to send: HealthCare.gov external review guide. Send the final denial letter, your internal appeal and everything you attached to it, and your medical records for the service. If your case is a hard medical necessity fight, a free human case manager may beat any template: the Patient Advocate Foundation, 1-800-532-5274, takes denial cases for people with serious or chronic conditions.

Stuck because you only have a summary bill: request the itemized bill

Steps 1 and 4 need the itemized bill with codes, and most people are only ever mailed a summary. You have the right to the full itemized statement. Generate the request, then send it and keep proof.

Your full name

Hospital or provider billing office

Account or statement number (if you have it)

Your request letter will appear here.

The bill is valid but you cannot pay it: negotiate it

If you owe the money and assistance does not apply, the number is still often negotiable. Advocates routinely see 30 to 40 percent off for a lump sum paid at once. Rules: never agree on the first call, ask for the hospital's own zero interest payment plan instead of a medical credit card, and get any agreement in writing before you pay a cent.

Bill amount you are negotiating ($)

Your call script will appear here.

Free human help, by problem

Hospital financial assistance paperwork: Dollar For, a free nonprofit, will fill in the hospital application, submit it, and follow up for you after a short screening.
Medication copay you cannot afford: TotalAssist runs grants for copays, premiums, and day of treatment charges across many conditions.
Insurer ignoring deadlines or acting in bad faith: file a free complaint with your state insurance department through the NAIC directory. Job based plan problems can also go to the U.S. Department of Labor benefits advisors at 1-866-444-3272.
Surprise bill nobody will fix: the No Surprises Help Desk, 1-800-985-3059, or cms.gov/nosurprises.

My bills tracker

Save each bill here and mark where it stands, so nothing sits in a drawer forgotten. The list lives only in this browser on this device, the same as everything else on this page. Nothing is uploaded.

Hospital or provider

Amount the bill asks for ($)

Where this bill stands

Deadline to watch (if any)

Note to yourself (optional)

Tip: when a step on this page gives you a deadline, copy that date into the bill here. Erase everything (in Step 3) clears this list too.

Tell us what worked

DueEasy is new and free. Two minutes of feedback shapes what gets fixed next.

Important: the feedback form is run by Google, not by this page. Never type real medical details into it. No names, no claim numbers, no member IDs, no dates of service, no diagnoses, and no copies of bills or letters. General comments only, like which step you used and whether it helped.

Open the feedback form