How It Works

This process is designed to be straightforward.

Most clients do not want more appointments. They want to know what to send, what happens next, and when they need to make a decision. That is how this works.

Every matter follows a clear path from intake to resolution. You will know what happens at each stage, what we need from you, and what to expect next. There are no hidden steps and no surprises.

Get Started - Review Fee

  • Fill out a brief intake form with your name, address, phone, and email
  • Upload your medical bills, insurance EOBs, and any collection notices
  • Pay the $149 review fee via secure online payment

The review fee starts screening and file review. It does not by itself begin representation.

What to upload: Bring whatever you have. Medical bills (even summary bills), any Explanation of Benefits (EOBs) from your insurance company, collection letters, correspondence from billing departments, and if possible, your insurance card (front and back). If you do not have everything, that is fine. Start with what you have. We can request the rest once we are engaged.

Why EOBs matter: An EOB shows what your insurance actually processed, what they paid, what adjustments were made, and what they determined you owe. Without the EOB, we are relying only on what the provider says you owe, which is often different. If you do not have your EOBs, we can request them from your insurance company using a HIPAA authorization you sign during intake.

About the review fee: The $149 review fee is not a consultation fee in the traditional sense. It covers attorney screening, conflict checking, document review, and initial case evaluation. Paying the review fee does not create an attorney-client relationship. It starts the evaluation process.

Attorney Review + Pricing Lane

  • We review fit, conflicts, scope, and matter economics
  • If the matter fits, we send a defined engagement offer with the pricing lane and required engagement fee
  • If it does not fit, we decline or refer out cleanly

What "attorney review" actually means: We look at every document you uploaded. We check for billing errors, duplicate charges, upcoding, and balance billing violations. We cross-reference your bills against your EOBs to see if the amounts match. We assess whether the No Surprises Act or the Georgia Fair Business Practices Act applies. We check for conflicts of interest. And we evaluate whether the matter economics make sense for both you and the firm.

If it fits: We tell you which package applies (Basic, Complex, or Collections Defense), what the engagement fee is, what the fee cap is, and what the success fee percentage is. You will know the full cost structure before you decide to proceed. No ambiguity, no hidden charges.

If it does not fit: We will tell you directly. If the matter is better handled by a bankruptcy attorney, a medical malpractice lawyer, or a legal aid organization, we will say so and, where possible, point you in the right direction. You will not be pressured into something that does not make sense.

Sign Engagement + Pay Engagement Fee

  • Review our Limited Scope Retainer Agreement online
  • Sign electronically through your secure portal
  • Pay the required engagement fee before representation begins

We Go to Work

This is where the real work happens. Once you sign the engagement agreement and pay the engagement fee, we begin actively working your case. Here is what that looks like:

Requesting Itemized Bills

One of the first things we do is request an itemized bill from each provider. Under Georgia law (O.C.G.A. Section 31-7-9), you have the right to a line-by-line breakdown of every charge. Most patients only receive summary bills that show a single total. The itemized version shows every procedure code, service date, and individual charge. That is where billing errors, duplicate charges, and upcoding become visible. We send these requests by mail with your HIPAA authorization attached.

Reviewing Bills Against Your EOB

If you have insurance, we cross-reference every bill against the corresponding Explanation of Benefits. We look for discrepancies: providers billing you more than what the EOB says you owe, charges that your insurance already paid but the provider is still billing you for, and adjustments that were supposed to be applied but were not. If you do not have your EOBs, we request them from your insurance company.

Identifying Errors and Overcharges

We review every line item for common billing problems: duplicate charges (the same service billed twice), upcoding (a provider billing for a higher-level service than what was performed), unbundling (billing individual components of a procedure separately to inflate the total), charges for services never rendered, and balance billing violations under the No Surprises Act or Georgia law. Attorney Barnes's background as a former critical care paramedic with a Johns Hopkins residency provides medical billing fluency that most attorneys simply do not have.

Drafting and Sending Settlement Offers

Once we have a complete picture, we draft professional settlement letters tailored to each provider or collector. These are not form letters. Each one addresses the specific facts of your account: documented errors, applicable legal protections, and a proposed resolution. Letters are sent by USPS first-class mail and, when appropriate, by fax. You can track every letter through your portal.

If your bill is in collections:

  • Formal debt dispute and verification. We send a written dispute to the collector and demand verification of the debt under the FDCPA (Section 1692g). Once we send that letter, the collector must stop all collection activity until they provide proper documentation. Many collectors cannot produce it.
  • Communication through counsel. We notify the collector that you are represented by an attorney and direct all future communication through our office. That means no more calls to your phone, no more letters to your home. They deal with us.
  • Violation documentation. If the collector has violated the FDCPA or the Georgia Fair Business Practices Act through harassment, misrepresentation, improper threats, or failure to validate the debt, we document those violations and raise them as part of the negotiation. Collectors who know their conduct has been documented often become significantly more reasonable.
  • Negotiation from a legal record. Instead of negotiating from panic, we negotiate from documented facts: verified amounts, identified errors, applicable legal violations, and clear records. That is a fundamentally different negotiation than calling a collector yourself.

Review & Approve Settlements

  • We present settlement offers to you in your online portal for approval
  • You decide whether to accept. Nothing happens without your consent
  • We handle all communication with creditors
  • You can message your attorney directly through your portal

What settlement approval looks like: When we receive a response from a provider or collector, we present it to you in your portal with a clear explanation of what was offered, what it means, and our recommendation. You review it on your own time. If you want to accept, you approve it through the portal. If you want to counter or decline, we discuss options through secure messaging. Nothing is sent without your explicit approval.

If you want a payment plan: If you need to pay the settled amount in installments rather than a lump sum, we can include payment plan terms in the negotiation where the provider or collector is amenable. You pay the settled amount directly to the provider or collector, not through us.

Close Out the Matter Clearly

  • Once settlements are confirmed, you receive documentation
  • If your engagement includes a success fee, it is calculated from the pricing terms you already accepted in writing
  • Pay any remaining attorney fee through the portal; settlement funds go directly to the provider or collector
  • Many clients save thousands of dollars

Need more than negotiation? If litigation or other legal services become necessary, we can help at $400/hour under a separate retainer agreement.

What you receive at closing: A summary of the original balance, the negotiated settlement amount, the documented savings, any errors or violations identified, and copies of all correspondence sent on your behalf. This documentation is stored in your portal and available for download.

About your attorney fee: If your engagement includes a success fee, it is calculated from the pricing terms you already accepted in writing. The success fee is charged to your payment method on file at case closing, before the settlement acceptance letter is sent to the provider. We do not offer payment plans for attorney fees. The fee cap in your engagement agreement is the maximum you will pay, regardless of the outcome.

A Note About Expectations

Some matters settle cleanly. Some do not. Not every bill can be reduced, and not every collector will cooperate. What we can promise is that every matter gets a thorough, legally grounded review. We identify every error we can find, raise every applicable legal protection, and negotiate from documented facts rather than guesswork.

If your case turns into something that does not belong in a streamlined negotiation practice, we will tell you directly. In many situations, the right move will be a referral or co-counsel relationship rather than forcing the wrong case into the wrong service.

The goal is not to promise the moon. It is to apply real legal tools to a real problem, keep you informed throughout, and resolve it as efficiently as possible.

What Can Happen

We do not promise specific results. But here are the kinds of outcomes that targeted legal work on medical bills can produce.

Billing Errors Corrected

Duplicate charges removed. Upcoded services corrected to accurate codes. Charges for services never rendered identified and eliminated. The bill comes down because the bill was wrong.

Balance Reduced Through Negotiation

Even when the bill is technically accurate, providers and collectors often accept a reduced amount to resolve the account. A professional settlement letter from an attorney's office carries more weight than a phone call from a patient.

Illegal Balance Bills Challenged

Bills that violate the No Surprises Act or Georgia balance billing protections are challenged directly. When the law is on your side, the provider's billing position becomes significantly weaker.

Collections Pressure Halted

Formal dispute and verification under the FDCPA stops collection activity until the collector provides proper documentation. Communication is redirected through our office. The phone calls stop. The negotiation begins from a legal footing instead of a place of fear.

Collector Violations Documented

If a collector has crossed the line with harassment, threats, or misrepresentation, those violations are documented and leveraged. Collectors who know their conduct has been recorded tend to negotiate very differently.

Bankruptcy Avoided

Medical debt is the number one cause of bankruptcy in America. But many people filing bankruptcy over medical bills never had anyone actually look at those bills. Negotiating the underlying debt is often a better path than wiping the slate, especially when the bills contain errors or the amounts are negotiable.

Ready to Get Started?

Upload your medical bills, pay the $149 review fee, and we'll take it from there. No commitment beyond the review.

Start Your Review: $149

Secure online process • HIPAA-compliant • Results in weeks, not months