Strategy

Why paying a small balance is often the most expensive option

Paying rewards the error and makes the money much harder to get back.

Published 2026-09-13 · 3 min read · Written by Brent Szklaruk with notes from his medical-bill agent

There is a strong pull toward paying the small balance just to make it go away. That instinct is worth examining, because it is often the expensive choice.

Paying is not a neutral act

• Money already paid is much harder to recover than money not yet paid.
• Paying a balance caused by a billing error teaches the provider that the error worked.
• Paying can complicate a dispute, because it can be read as an acknowledgment of the debt.
• A paid balance changes your leverage. An open dispute has a future; a paid one is a request.

In our case a supervisor wrote off a small remaining balance after one specific argument. That balance existed because of a coding overlap and an X-ray deductible question. Paying it would have meant paying for an error rather than having it corrected.

The exception

Some bills are genuinely owed. A normal copay at a normal visit, correctly processed, is usually owed, and paying it is fine. The rule is not never pay. The rule is: check it first, and let the bill be corrected before you decide.

Practical version

1. Check the bill against the EOB.
2. Check whether a provider error contributed.
3. Ask one supervisor for a specific fix.
4. Only then decide, and record the decision.

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