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What actually goes wrong on a medical bill

One article for each thing this service checks. Written for someone holding a bill they do not understand, not as a feature list.

Balance billing — being charged above the contracted rate What balance billing is, why it is usually not allowed in network, and the exact request that resolves it.
Your bill is higher than your EOB says you owe The single most common mismatch between a medical bill and an EOB, and exactly what to ask about it.
A charge on the bill that your EOB never mentions An unmatched line usually means the claim went somewhere you have not looked yet — but not always.
Your EOB's own numbers do not add up When the disagreement is inside your plan's own arithmetic, the billing office cannot fix it — this one goes to the insurer.
Your plan denied a charge and the provider billed you anyway What a denial code means, why some denials are the provider's problem and not yours, and how to tell which is which.
The same service charged twice How to tell a real duplicate from a service that genuinely happened more than once, using your EOB.
Emergency care and the No Surprises Act Federal law caps what you can be charged for emergency care, and the protection cannot be signed away at registration.
Your bill came in far above the written estimate If you are uninsured or self-pay and the bill exceeds your Good Faith Estimate by $400 or more, there is a federal process.
Nonprofit hospitals must have a financial assistance policy Most US hospitals are nonprofits, and the law requires them to run a charity care programme and tell patients it exists.
A bill with no itemized detail A summary statement cannot be checked against anything. Asking for the itemized version is the first move, and providers generally have to give you one.
A bill arrived before the Explanation of Benefits Why a bill without an EOB cannot be checked, and what to do while you wait for one.
The same service billed several separate times in one day When the plan adjudicated every line, nothing is technically wrong — but how a service is split still changes what it costs.
More units billed than your plan processed Units are the quietest kind of overcharge, because the service is real and only the quantity is wrong.