[May 25, 2016]

Most U.S. Consumers are Befuddled and Frustrated by Medical Bills

The U.S. healthcare system is finally catching on to American consumers' long-standing confusion and frustration regarding their medical bills, with the recently announced Health and Human Services design and innovation challenge: "A Bill You Can Understand." This idea of healthcare autonomy being widely encouraged across the country comes at a crucial time when the 2016 Copatient State of Medical Bill Confusion survey reveals 72 percent of consumers have received a medical bill they didn't understand and 94 percent have received a medical bill they believed was "too expensive."

With new developments in the healthcare industry, including balance billing, the "Cadillac Tax," Health Savings Accounts, narrowing networks and rising out-of-pocket costs, the financial responsibility for care has increasingly been placed on consumers and employers. The 2016 Copatient survey results paint a somewhat bleak picture of the current healthcare landscape, highlighting the detrimental effects associated with a lack of consumer-facing educational tools, and the re-occurring pattern of uncertainty and discord amongst consumers, employers and health plan administrators.

"These findings highlight both the complexity in understanding healthcare and the sticker-shock consumers are experiencing," said Copatient Co-founder and Chief Strategy Officer, Rebecca Palm. "It is imperative consumers become more educated on personal healthcare expenses and place a significant emphasis on increasing autonomy in terms of awareness and understanding, when it comes to changesin health insurance, coverage and benefits."

The industry-benchmark survey, inclusive of 200+ U.S. consumers, highlights top findings related to consumer sentiment and base-line understanding of financial independence, healthcare policy and employer-based insurance policies.

Additional findings from the survey include:

• 36 percent of consumers have received a medical bill they were unable to pay
  • 41 percent had to use a payment plan
• 53 percent of consumers have tried to negotiate a medical bill
  • 38 percent were successful at saving money
• Nearly 60 percent of people do not know what balance billing is
• Nearly 70 percent of people have not heard of the "Cadillac Tax"

Copatient helps consumers take control of their healthcare expenses, through comprehensive and highly intuitive healthcare expense management services. The Company works to resolve billing errors and ensures provider payments are appropriate for the services provided by using crowd-sourced data and a proprietary technology platform to perform innovative bill analyses and negotiate payments.

In addition, the Company provides employers and health plans with a comprehensive solution that helps employees/members understand and manage their healthcare expenses. Copatient's service offerings focus on providing valuable cost savings for employees/members through medical bill review, simplification, and negotiation.

To learn more about Copatient, please visit the website here or call 888-702-2330 for more information.

About Copatient

Copatient is the leading resource of solutions enabling consumers to better manage and reduce their healthcare expenses. Copatient helps consumers resolve billing errors and ensures that provider payments from consumers are appropriate for the services provided by using crowd-sourced data and a proprietary technology platform to perform an innovative bill analysis and negotiate payment. Copatient was founded in 2012 and is headquartered in Boston. For more information, visit www.copatient.com or follow Copatient on Facebook (News - Alert), Twitter or LinkedIn.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160525005073/en/

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