Frequently Asked Questions

Upfronte is an AI-powered patient advocacy service that helps you fight unfair medical bills. You upload a photo or PDF of your bill, our AI agent checks each charge against real hospital pricing data, flags overcharges and billing errors in plain English, and the agent automatically negotiates the bill down on your behalf.

There is no upfront cost and no subscription. Upfronte works on contingency: you only pay if we actually save you money. The fee is 20% of the savings we recover for you, with a $49 minimum. If we find nothing or save you nothing, you pay nothing.

We compare every line item on your bill to the prices hospitals actually accept. Since 2021, federal law requires hospitals to publish the rates they negotiate with insurers in machine-readable files. Upfronte cross-references your charges against millions of these real negotiated rates to reveal markups, duplicate charges, and coding errors.

No. Upfronte is a patient advocacy and bill-analysis service. We are not a law firm and do not provide legal advice, and we are not a medical practice and do not provide medical advice. Our analysis is informational, and results do not guarantee a billing reduction.

A lot. Hospital gross charges routinely run 6–10× higher than the rates insurers actually pay for the same service. In one real example from a hospital’s own price file, a head CT scan (CPT 70450) was billed at $3,450 while the insurer-negotiated rate was just $218 — a 15.8× markup.

You can upload almost any hospital or provider bill as a photo or a multi-page PDF — itemized statements, summary bills, or balance-due notices. An itemized bill with CPT or procedure codes gives the most precise analysis, and Upfronte can also help you request an itemized bill if you only have a summary.

Yes. Your bill and personal details are stored securely, and we only act on your behalf after you sign a limited HIPAA authorization that lets us speak with the hospital’s billing department about your account. Access to your health information is logged for compliance.

You pay nothing. Upfronte is a no-savings, no-fee service. If our analysis finds no overcharges or our negotiation does not reduce your bill, there is no charge to you. You only pay the 20% contingency fee (minimum $49) on savings we actually recover.

After you authorize us, our advocates contact the hospital’s billing department directly. We draft dispute letters that cite the hospital’s own published rates and federal price-transparency and No Surprises Act protections, then negotiate a corrected, fair balance on your behalf.

Yes. Uninsured and self-pay patients are often charged the highest "gross" prices, so there is frequently the most room to negotiate. We compare your bill to cash and negotiated rates, check whether you qualify for hospital charity care or financial assistance, and negotiate accordingly.