Two things happened in the last few weeks that could cost you money. One is a scam. The other is a rule that works in your favor.

Both take about five minutes to deal with, and you need to know them.

1. Delete the email about your "free Medicare kit"

If your hospital uses MyChart, you already know what it looks like. It is the website or app where you see your test results, your appointments, and your bills.

Scammers know that too.

Right now, fake emails are going out that look like they come from MyChart. The subject line says something like "Your MyChart Medicare Kit Awaits!" The email offers a free "Senior Health Package." It asks you to click a link and sign in. (Trust me. I've gotten this scam email myself.)

Do not click it.

The link goes to a fake website. It is a copy of the real MyChart page, right down to the buttons and the colors. One version of the fake email even signs off with the real company's address in Wisconsin. It is very good. That is the point.

More than 40 hospital systems have warned their patients about this in the last few weeks. Big city hospitals. Small country hospitals. This is not one hospital's problem.

Here is the part that surprised me: MyChart was not hacked. Nobody broke in. The scammers are just copying a brand you already trust and mailing it to everyone.

What to do

• Do not click links in any email about MyChart. Not even ones that look real.

• Open MyChart the way you always do. Use your app, or type your hospital's website address yourself.

• Remember that real MyChart does not send you free gifts, free kits, or free health packages. Ever.

• If you already clicked and signed in, change your MyChart password today. Then call your hospital's help line and tell them.

Your MyChart account holds your insurance information, your address, your date of birth, and your bills. Someone who gets in can use all of it. That is worth five minutes of your time.

2. Your hospital has to show you its prices. Hundreds just got in trouble for hiding them.

Here is a rule most people have never heard of.

Hospitals are required by federal law to post their prices online. Not a guess. Not a range. The actual prices, in a list anybody can look at, for free, without calling and sitting on hold.

That rule got stronger this April. Hospitals now have to post the real dollar amounts that insurance companies pay them. Someone at the hospital also has to sign their name saying the numbers are true.

A lot of hospitals were not doing it.

In June, more than 500 hospitals got warning letters from the federal government. Almost 30 hospitals have been fined this year. Some of those fines came close to a million dollars.

Why this matters to you: the price on your bill is not a law of nature. It is a number someone chose. And now you can look up what that number is supposed to be.

What to do

Search online for your hospital's name plus the words "standard charges." You can also go to the hospital's website and look for a link that says "price transparency" or "pricing."

Then use it two ways.

Before care you plan ahead of time. Surgery, an MRI, a scan, a test. Look up the price first. Then ask what your share will be.

After a bill shows up. Find the same service on the list and compare. If your bill is much higher than what the hospital posted, call and ask why. Ask them to put the answer in writing.

And if the hospital cannot show you a price at all? That tells you something too. It also means they may already be on the government's list.

The short version

Delete the MyChart email. Look up your hospital's prices.

Neither one is hard. Both are worth doing this week.

Hope you have a nice, long holiday weekend,

April

Need help with a bill you already have? Start with the free Negotiation Phrases sheet at hospitalbillwhisperer.com.