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A post on X (was Twitter) offers an interesting twist –
“A guy just used @AnthropicAI Claude to turn a $195,000 hospital bill into $33,000. Not with a lawyer. Not with a hospital admin insider. With a $20/month Claude Plus subscription. He uploaded the itemized bill. Claude spotted duplicate procedure codes, illegal “double billing,” and charges that Medicare rules explicitly forbid. Then it helped him write a letter citing every violation. The hospital dropped their demand by 83%. This isn’t just a feel-good story. It’s a preview of what AI will really do next: flatten systems built on opacity. Hospitals, insurance companies, legal firms—all rely on asymmetry. They win because you don’t have access to the same data, code books, or language. Claude gave one person the same leverage as a compliance department. That’s a revolution. We thought AI would replace jobs. Turns out, it’s replacing excuses.”
Here’s the original article: https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/artificial-intelligence/grieving-family-uses-ai-chatbot-to-cut-hospital-bill-from-usd195-000-to-usd33-000-family-says-claude-highlighted-duplicative-charges-improper-coding-and-other-violations
Thanks Keith. There will be many uses for AI in the future, nice to hear it can help some NOW. Remember AI is like a young child now, and in 10 and 20 years it will be the smartest adult on the planet. There should be many real uses for the common person, and easy to use. That is the way I see it.
Keep posting updates.
The phrase “rely on asymmetry” really got me. I’m wrangling with one of my two retirement systems over the final amount of my pension. They shorted me. They know it and I know it. They sent me a letter full of legal codes and acronyms to explain their decision. They told me I could appeal it, but I’m sure there’s a “good luck with that” snicker that accompanies that invitation to appeal. I have a PhD and am married to a lawyer, and we could barely make heads or tails out of it, and I’m still not sure exactly how to fight it. I did file an appeal but don’t have much hope. It’s not a negligible amount of money. If I lose, and I probably will, we won’t be eating cat food in our 80s. But I had to try. I just thought it was amazing how intentionally incomprehensible this document was. Shame on them—the people who created this will have to retire from this same system when the time comes, and I’m guessing they’d like their own pensions to be calculated accurately.
XXXXXX
We were recently defrauded in a cell phone scam, we ended up paying for a bill that wasn’t even ours. After months of wrangling with the provider, we were still at a deadlock over a few thousand dollars. That’s when we used an AI to guide us through the labyrinth of complaints protocols with our independent national communications regulator. AI was definitely a helpful tool in this instance.
Maybe hospitals should run their error-riddled bills through AI before sending them out.
Where’s the profit in that?
Why not publish the name of the hospital ? Sound like a marketing for Claude AI
If you drill in a bit you see it’s based on a thread on “threads” – it was the poster’s brother-in-law who passed – and this was done in conjunction with his sister. Lots of reasons to keep identities private. And I believe the point is not to shame the particular hospital – I suspect their IT, processes, and accounting systems are not particularly unique.
This is an excellent discovery and discussion. I also listen to arm and a leg.
I am still resisting AI, but that is certainly a worthwhile use. I have sent the link to the Arm and a Leg podcast people.
This link may work better.
Arm and a Leg has very interesting content. If people are not familiar it focuses on the ridiculous medical system we have and how to fight over billing in medicine.
Here is the link for Arm and a Leg. I wanted to post it in my original comment, but that would have sent it to moderation.
That’s an excellent use of AI. I wonder if the same idea could be applied to insurance contracts when a claim is dismissed over some obscure clause.
So I found this interesting because of the current discussions about the high cost of medical care – but I have to believe there’s a parallel in the finance world that this forum addresses.