Medical Billing Services NAICS 541219

May 4, 2026 - Many Americans Struggle To Pay Medical Bills

• About 41% of US adults currently have some type of debt due to medical or dental bills from their own or someone else’s care, according to health policy research firm KFF. Medical billing services may be negatively impacted, as they typically charge 3-10% of net collections for their services. About a quarter of adults (24%) say they have medical or dental bills that are past due or that they are unable to pay, and one in five (21%) who have bills they are paying off over time directly to a provider. One in six (17%) report debt owed to a bank, collection agency, or other lender from loans taken out to pay for medical or dental bills, while similar shares say they have health care debt from bills they put on a credit card and are paying off over time (17%). One in ten report debt owed to a family member or friend from money they borrowed to pay off medical or dental bills. About half of U.S. adults say they would not be able to pay an unexpected medical bill that came to $500 out of pocket.
• Single-specialty medical groups averaged an 8% first-submission claim denial rate, according to the Medical Group Management Association's 2023 DataDive. Mitigation efforts have paid off for some practices, however. Practices experiencing reduced claim denials credited enhanced staff training for front desk workers and establishing a denials task force team dedicated to improving clinical documentation, eligibility verification, and authorizations. These practices also noted either hiring additional coding and billing staff or having their coders pursue new training and/or certifications as strong denial mitigators.

• The patient payment rate to hospitals decreased after the coronavirus pandemic, according to a study published in JAMA Health Forum. The mean repayment rate was approximately 54% from January 2018 through February 2020 for both privately insured and Medicare Advantage patients. The rate then started decreasing among both groups, the study found. The mean repayment rate for privately insured patients in 2023 was about 14.3% lower than in 2021. For those with Medicare Advantage, the rate decreased by almost 17%. Patients were also less likely to pay their hospital bills when they were higher. The repayment rate among the privately insured for bills over $1,000, for example, was generally under 35% versus about 50% for bills of about $100. Medicare Advantage enrollees tended to do the same, although the repayment rate was even lower for larger hospital bills.
• Medical billing services industry employment increased slightly and average wages for nonsupervisory employees decreased slightly during the first two months of 2026, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). Medical billing services industry sales are forecast to increase at a 3.7% compounded annual rate from 2026 to 2030, slower than the growth of the overall economy, according to Inforum and the Interindustry Economic Research Fund, Inc.