Your Fiduciary Duty. Documented.
Medical Bill Shield runs the Independent Medical Bill Audit.
When your employees flag a bill that feels wrong or a denial that makes no sense, physician-trained Certified Medical Bill Advocates check whether the bill was ever true, fix the wrong ones, and document every step for your fiduciary records.
The Gap No One's Covering
Your TPA processes claims. Your broker negotiates rates.
But who fights the inflated bills your employees actually receive?
They handle administration. They don't question whether the bill is accurate or fair.
They optimize your plan design. They don't audit individual employee bills for errors.
When employees flag suspicious bills, we verify them, fix the wrong ones, and document everything for your fiduciary records.
Three Steps to Protected Employees
Your employees are the canary in the mine.
They feel billing problems first.
Employee Uploads Bill
Something feels wrong: a bill that's too high, a denial that doesn't make sense. They upload the bill, the EOB, and any denial letter through our secure portal.
Routed to a Physician-Trained Advocate
Our intake system analyzes the upload and routes it to a physician-trained Certified Medical Bill Advocate who knows exactly what to look for.
Verify, Correct, Resolve
First we verify: did the billed codes match what actually happened? Wrong bills get corrected or eliminated and unfair denials get appealed. When a charge is real but overpriced, we negotiate it to a fair benchmark. Every action is documented for your records.
The Numbers Don't Lie
of medical bills contain at least one error.
Source: Medical Billing Advocates of America
Backed by independent research: a 2024 USC Schaeffer Center study in JAMA Health Forum found widespread billing errors, and Equifax has reported that hospital bills over $10,000 contain an average of about $1,300 in errors.
is the hidden first-year cost to employers and employees of a single unresolved medical bill.
Illustrative model. See the math below.
is the largest recent ERISA fiduciary settlement in the excessive-fee wave now reaching health plans.
Source: Fisher Phillips, 2024
The math behind the number
One unresolved medical bill doesn't just cost what's printed on it. Here's what a year of carrying it can quietly cost employers and employees:
- • About 3 hours a day fighting the claim: calling the provider, the plan, appealing, re-appealing.
- • About 3 hours a day earning the money to pay it: a side hustle or second job hunt.
- • Roughly 3 days a week, about 50 weeks a year.
At a $25/hour wage, that's about 900 hours, or about $22,500 a year in time and lost earning power. That's the cost nobody bills anyone for, and the one a documented audit is built to prevent.
Built by a doctor who audited bills from the inside
Medical Bill Shield was founded by Virgie Bright Ellington, MD, an internal medicine physician with 25 years in medicine and more than a decade as a health insurance medical director. Inside a national carrier, she built a bill audit program that grew to $150 million in annual savings and returned $27 for every $1 it cost. After writing the book teaching the nation to fight wrong medical bills, What Your Doctor Wants You to Know to Crush Medical Debt, Dr. Bright Ellington now trains certified medical bill advocates throughout the United States.
Carriers have always had physicians checking bills for them. Medical Bill Shield brings that same discipline to your plan and your people.
Who We Protect
Medical Bill Shield serves organizations that take fiduciary responsibility seriously.
You bear the risk. We help you document your fiduciary compliance while protecting your employees from expensive billing errors.
Your clients trust you to help them navigate healthcare. Give them the best protection they can't get anywhere else.
You advise employers on benefits.
Add a service that proves your value:
documented fiduciary protection.