The deductible is an amount that you pay out of pocket before insurance starts covering anything. So if insurance doesn’t get billed, the money doesn’t count towards the deductible. This may make it difficult to lower the bill at all, it really depends on how much the entire bill is compared to your deductible. If you can’t pay it though, they’ll have to give you an affordable payment plan. Definitely negotiate and don’t take a loan out from some other source to cover.

I periodically stumble across Joel’s blog and it blows my mind how relevant it typically is.