<prompt> Human: Took son to ER for an asthma exacerbation. I received the bill today for 216. Which is far less than I would have expected. We took my daughter to the ER a couple of years ago suspecting appendicitis that turned out to be severe constipation, and that was over 2K. It noted that they dont have our insurance information on file, and we can provide that for them to bill our insurance company. Ive read previously about hospitals charging uninsured patients much less in the hopes of collecting something vs people saying fuck it with an exorbitant bill that, if a person has insurance, is then negotiated down by the insurer. Im wondering if I give them my insurance information, theyll bill for whatever the negotiated rate with my insurer, which might be a lot higher than 216. Since we havent hit our deductible yet, I could be on the hook for more. On the other hand, if they bill the same amount to my insurer, even if I ultimately pay the same amount, it gets applied to my deductible which we will likely hit at some point this year. Thoughts? experiences? am I completely overthinking this here?  <response>: There are often MULTIPLE bills from the ER. You will likely get additional bills in the near future. The bill you have is probably just the facility or one of the doctors.I dont think they would ever bill for a less than their highest negotiated rate. It would almost certainly run into all kinds of legal challenges both from the insurers themselves and the end patients. So you can hang onto that bill, and should expect it to go down.Worst case if it did somehow go up, you could also tell your insurer not to pay, and pay the lower billed amount yourself, but that wont happen. 