Sky-high medical bills? Here’s how to negotiate

Plus: How to give your leftovers a delicious second life

View this email online April 2, 2023  by Andrea Muraskin This week: You already had to go to the hospital – here’s how to take some of the pain out of paying big medical bills. Plus: a new cookbook all about leftovers transforms soggy greens and potato skins into new tasty dishes. And: with spring at our doorsteps, keep an eye out for ticks that can spoil your steak dinner.  Medical bills can cause a financial crisis. Here's how to negotiate them Shannon Wright for NPR We expect to be able to negotiate some of the biggest dollar amounts in our lives, like when we’re buying a house or a car, or haggling over a salary. But medical bills? Yes, you can negotiate those, too.  An NPR/KHN investigation last year found that more than half of US adults report going into medical debt in the past five years. And a quarter of those with debt say they owe $5,000 or more.  The good news is those numbers on your medical bill are not set in stone. Not even close, according to Jared Walker, the founder of Dollar For, a nonprofit that helps people reduce or eliminate their medical bills. "People see that bill and the number on that and they think, 'I have to pay this quickly and I have to pay this exact amount,' " Walker says, "and that's just not the case. You have time. They're fake numbers."  Walker says if you can’t afford to pay a bill, the first thing to do is find out if you qualify for the charity care program at your hospital. Non-profit hospitals are required to provide discounted or free care for patients within a certain income range, and some for-profit hospitals provide assistance, too. Even if you don’t qualify for a discount, ask for an itemized bill, Walker advises. Billing errors are common, and you could bring your total down by pointing out a test that in fact didn’t happen, or a suspiciously high charge for a common medication.  Here are five tips for negotiating your medical bill, plus a video with more information.  Also: Advocates push IRS, consumer agency for medical debt relief   Newsletter continues after sponsor message Make the most out of your leftovers with this creative cookbook Keren Carrión/NPR I consume a lot of almond butter. The stuff isn’t cheap, and when I get to the bottom of the plastic jar, I get angsty about the last tidbits that remain stubbornly stuck there. I can’t use them, and I don’t know how to get rid of them, either. Do I soak the jar more than once? Attack it with a bottle brush? Give it to the dog? Enter empty jar nut butter noodles, an ingenious concoction by chef and author Tamar Adler. Add some hot water, some mashed up garlic, a few seasonings and voila, you’ve got a sauce for rice noodles. Toss a few chopped fresh veggies on top, and you have yourself a dish. Empty jar nut butter noodles is one of the inventions in The Everlasting Meal Cookbook: Leftovers A-Z, where Adler provides ideas to reduce waste and give second lives to healthy food items like wilted lettuce, potato skins and bendy celery. And the recipes are customizable – meant to work with whatever you have around. NPR's Mary Louise Kelly visited Adler in her Bethesda, Maryland kitchen to learn her tricks.  Discover insights from Adler’s unique culinary philosophy, and two leftover-based recipes that you can whip up in less than half an hour.  Also: Ways to reduce food waste that start before you even go shopping   An allergy unlike most others: What you need to know about tick bites and eating red meat Getty Images What comes to mind when you think of the term "allergic reaction?" You probably picture sneezing, a runny nose, watery eyes, swelling, and perhaps a rash. With food allergies, GI symptoms like abdominal pain, nausea, diarrhea and vomiting are often in the mix as well. But most people – including most doctors – aren’t used to identifying GI upset on its own as an allergic reaction.  So it makes sense that when 72-year-old Randy Rayborn experienced what he calls a "violent upheaval" one night, he thought he had food poisoning. But after a second attack, a blood test revealed what was happening to Rayborn was an allergic reaction to red meat – and it had everything to do with some ticks he’d picked up during a walk in the woods a few months earlier.  Rayborn’s doctor diagnosed him with alpha-gal syndrome, an allergy to a sugar found in the blood of most mammals – and the saliva of ticks found in the Northeast, South, and parts of the Midwest. When tick saliva goes through a person’s skin and transmits alpha-gal, that person’s immune system can be tricked into making an allergic response to this sugar. That allergic response is then triggered when the person eats red meat, or sometimes other animal products like dairy and gelatin. Learn about the new guidelines for diagnosing alpha-gal syndrome, and what to do if you have it.  Plus: What is Babesiosis? A rare tick-borne disease is on the rise in the Northeast Before you go: Claire Harbage/NPR A startup unveils a jumbo meatball made from lab-grown mammoth meat Your questions about hidden viruses, answered Soon you’ll be able to pay with your palm at Panera A rehab center revives Ukrainian troops before they return to combat We hope you enjoyed these stories. Find more of NPR's health journalism on Shots and follow us on Twitter at @NPRHealth. All the best, Andrea Muraskin and your Shots editors Listen to your local NPR station. Visit NPR.org to hear live radio from WBEZ (edit station). What do you think of today's email? We'd love to hear your thoughts, questions and feedback: shots@npr.org Enjoying this newsletter? 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