Why I built Brightbill

I'm Khalid El-Saadi. Before moving to Los Angeles in 2018, my wife and I lived in England and Austria, where our two daughters were born.

In Europe, getting care felt simple. We knew what things would cost before we walked in. We saw our doctors easily and they knew us. The rules were short and clear, and when something went wrong, there was an obvious place to turn.

In 2015 I tore my rotator cuff. In Austria I saw a doctor the next day, had an X-ray and an MRI and a diagnosis, and was booked for surgery the following week, with an overnight stay, for one clear, all-in price of 3,400 euros.

I was flying to the US on business that month, and people told me American surgeons were the best for shoulders. Through a personal referral, the only way I could get in that quickly, I got an appointment with a leading surgeon in New York. I met him for about five minutes the day before the operation. Afterwards a nurse checked on me and I was sent home the same afternoon. I never saw or heard from the surgeon again: no follow-up, just a ten-page booklet of exercises to do on my own for three months.

The bill came to about $34,000, almost ten times the Austrian price for the same operation. I was only admitted because I had a generous international health insurance policy through my employer in Europe. Without it, I could not have had the surgery here at all. I kept thinking about everyone who doesn't have a policy like that.

When my family moved here in 2018 and I started looking into it, what surprised me most was that many protections already exist. Many hospitals are required by law to offer free or discounted care to patients below certain incomes, and federal law protects you from many surprise bills. But the rules are buried in statutes, forms and fine print, and most people never find out they qualify.

So I built Brightbill. The check is free and anonymous: it tells you in about two minutes whether the law is likely on your side, and shows you the exact rule it is based on. If you want help acting on it, Brightbill will soon do the paperwork for you, for free: we apply to the hospital for financial assistance, follow up, read the reply and check the decision against the law, and help you dispute any surprise bill from the same visit.