<p>This happened to me about ten years ago when I went into surgery to have a procedure on my foot. I was told the cost would be around $1200 after insurance. But a few weeks later, I got a bill for $2200. Evidently, the anesthesiologist was out of network.</p><p>Funny thing is that no one told me that at the time. Wouldn't it have been fair for someone to let me know the bill was about to double? As a patient, shouldn't I have the right to refuse service if it's going to cost me $1,000 more than I was quoted? If you went to get your car fixed and they quoted you one price, then billed you for double, you can sue them. </p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">
<img class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="5a36bdef4d05a17d520296c90e83ad7f" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" id="e0b0f" type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDk4ODI2Ny9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYyNTIxNTA1MX0.wKOSipgePf__RcXo73AfLVpxZB1S8jVOUU4VLbE09iY/img.jpg?width=980"/>
<small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="Add Photo Credit...">via Unsplash</small></p><p>What's worse is that a lot of companies practice this type of billing on purpose. According to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/24/upshot/the-company-behind-many-surprise-emergency-room-bills.html" target="_blank">The New York Times</a>, "Some private-equity firms have turned this kind of billing into a robust business model, buying emergency room doctor groups and moving the providers out of network so they could bill larger fees."<br/></p><p>Surprisingly, Congress actually stepped up to the healthcare industry on Monday by passing the massive $900 billion, 5,600-page coronavirus relief package. Included in the bill was a law that makes "surprise" billing illegal for doctors, hospitals, and air ambulances, though not ground ambulances.</p><p>It's believed that President Trump will sign the bill into law sometime this week.</p><p>More than a dozen states, including texas and California, have passed similar bills banning this practice in one form or another.</p><p>Congress tried to pass this legislation in December, but a last-minute influx of money from private-equity forms and healthcare lobbyists scuttled the deal.</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">
<img class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="9f1ba557dc9ebf43f0d0f2d343d982cc" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" id="7fa22" type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDk4ODI3MC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY2OTM2Nzg3M30.d3GVxrUmUJjRwd4T-drGrKdESGCn2ekcWYu6LE4N4FI/img.jpg?width=980"/>
<small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="Add Photo Credit...">via Unsplash</small></p><p>Even though it was a bipartisan issue with the support of 80% of Americans, lobbyists still made it tough to pass.<br/></p><p>"There were a lot of things working in the legislation's favor — it's a relatively targeted problem, it resonates very well with voters, and it's not a hyperpartisan issue among voters or Congress — and it was still tough," said Benedic Ippolito, a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, told the New York Times. </p><p>"It has almost everything going for it, and yet it was still this complete slog," he added.</p><p>"This was a real victory for American people against moneyed interests," said Frederick Isasi, executive director of Families USA. "This really was about Congress recognizing in a bipartisan way the obscenity of families who were paying insurance still having financial bombs going off."</p><p>Now, after the legislation passes, insurers and medical providers will have to agree on a payment rate for out-of-network services that is a fair amount based on what other hospitals and doctors normally charge. If they don't agree, they'll be sent to arbitration.</p><p>The legislation is a big win for consumers who will now be able to visit the emergency room without unknowingly being caught in a billing trap. However, we shouldn't celebrate the fact we're now protected from predatory practices that shouldn't have been legal in the first place. </p>From Your Site Articles
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