Pricing math
Keep 100% of what you save.
Contingency-based medical bill services charge 25-35% of whatever they save you. A flat-fee audit charges once and lets you keep every dollar of the difference. Here’s the math.
Last reviewed May 2026 · MediBill Saver Editorial Team
The math on three real-world bill sizes
Assume the same audit finds the same errors. The only variable is which pricing model you used.
$1,200 ER bill · $400 in disputable charges
- Flat-fee audit ($19.97): you save $380.03
- Contingency at 30% ($120): you save $280
- Difference: $100 stays with you
$4,000 surgery bill · $1,500 in disputable charges
- Flat-fee audit ($19.97): you save $1,480.03
- Contingency at 30% ($450): you save $1,050
- Difference: $430 stays with you
$22,000 inpatient stay · $6,800 in disputable charges
- Flat-fee audit ($19.97): you save $6,780.03
- Contingency at 30% ($2,040): you save $4,760
- Difference: $2,020 stays with you
Example calculations using a 30% industry-typical contingency rate. Actual rates vary by provider; verify before deciding.
Why contingency pricing exists
Contingency-based services solve a real customer problem: trust. If you’ve never seen a medical bill audit work, “we’ll take a percentage of whatever we save you” feels safer than paying upfront. The service has skin in the game.
Flat-fee tools require the customer to trust the audit before paying. That’s why money-back guarantees matter — they let the customer try the audit without taking on the upfront risk. MediBill Saver’s 30-day money-back guarantee solves the same trust problem contingency pricing was invented for, without the percentage fee.
When contingency makes sense
Not every situation is a flat-fee fit. Contingency is the right call when:
- You want someone else to do the negotiation calls — not just identify what to dispute.
- The bill is in active collections and the timeline is urgent enough that hands-off matters more than the fee.
- You’re confident the savings will be very small, in which case the percentage cut on that small number is less than any flat fee.
For most patients with a bill in the $500-$50,000 range, the math favors a flat-fee audit by a wide margin.
Frequently asked
Is a flat-fee audit really better than a free service?
"Free" contingency services aren’t free — they take 25-35% of whatever they save you. On a $4,000 bill with $1,500 in disputable charges, a 30% cut is $450. A flat-fee audit charges $19.97 for the same line-item analysis, and you keep the full $1,500. The free-upfront framing hides the back-end cost.
What if my bill has very little to dispute?
A flat-fee audit is the safer bet on smaller bills or bills with limited error potential. You pay $19.97 once regardless of how much you find. A contingency service won’t bill you if they don’t find anything — but you also won’t know whether they looked hard or moved on, since there’s no incentive to dig if the savings are small.
Do flat-fee audit tools find the same errors as contingency services?
Both models look at the same data: your bill’s CPT/HCPCS/DRG codes, the hospital’s posted price-transparency file, Medicare’s published rates, and federal bundling rules (NCCI edits). Where they differ is the next step: contingency services then negotiate; flat-fee tools hand the findings to you to take back to the hospital.
Why don’t more services use flat fees?
Flat fees require trust that the software is good — you pay before you know whether there’s anything to find. Contingency removes that uncertainty for the customer by making the service free if nothing’s found. The downside, as the math shows, is that successful contingency engagements cost the customer much more than a flat-fee tool would have.
Audit a bill — $19.97, you keep everything you save
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