Money, Bills & BenefitsDone with Claude 2026-10-15
Cut a hospital bill using Claude's Medicare price analysis
Claude built a spreadsheet of Medicare prices per code on a $195,628 hospital bill; the user then wrote the letter and negotiated about $163,000 off himself, so Claude only analyzed.
- What They Did
- Matt Rosenberg got the hospital to send its coded UB-04 form. He asked Claude to build a spreadsheet of Medicare payments per CPT code and flag anything needing more research. Claude asked about insurance type, location and year, then found unbundled charges, an inpatient-only bypass charge and a ventilation charge. He had ChatGPT check the work, spot-checked it himself for 20 minutes, then wrote the letter.
- How It Went
- Claude estimated Medicare would have paid about $28,675 against $195,628. The hospital countered at $36,356, and they settled near $32,500, which is roughly $163,000 off.
- Worth Knowing
- Claude's first spreadsheet showed zeros for bundled codes, so you have to ask follow-up questions. Rosenberg also verified the analysis and advises against using AI as your lawyer.
Try it yourself with Claude
I'll paste an itemized hospital bill totaling [amount] with its billing codes. For each code, look up the Medicare reimbursement rate and build a spreadsheet comparing billed charge, Medicare price, and the multiple. Highlight the biggest gaps and any duplicate or questionable charges, then suggest talking points for a negotiation letter that I'll write myself.