Post by benson on Feb 24, 2022 13:55:11 GMT
Are We Really Going to See the End of Surprise Medical Bills in 2022?
New legislation is set to take effect in January 2022 that is meant to end so-called surprise medical bills for people receiving emergency care and other health services in the United States.
The No Surprises Act, which Congress passed and former President Donald Trump signed into law in December, received widespread bipartisan support.
Earlier this month, the Biden administration issued an interim final rule, the first step of finalizing the details of the law.
But what does this law mean? Will Americans really see an end to surprise medical bills?
Healthline spoke with two experts in healthcare policy and medical billing to suss out the details.
First, it’s important to define what a surprise medical bill is. There are many situations when a person can be surprised by a medical bill, but this legislation defines it in a specific context.
“Here, the term ‘surprise medical bill’ is used to refer to out-of-network balance bills that occur in which the patient was not expecting them or had no control over them,” said Christopher Garmon, PhD, assistant professor of health administration at the Henry W. Bloch School of Management at the University of Missouri–Kansas City.
An example of this is if a person breaks their leg and goes to the nearest emergency room that they know is in their health insurance plan’s network, but they end up being treated by an out-of-network doctor.
“So, you just assume all the providers there are also in your health plan’s network, and that’s not necessarily the case,” Garmon explained.
“And so you may encounter an emergency room physician or an anesthesiologist or pathologist that turns out is not in your health plan’s network, and then a few weeks after your visit, you get a large bill asking you to pay the difference between what your insurance company paid and the total bill charged,” he said.
Surprise medical bills have garnered much attention in the press in recent years. One of the most egregious cases was documented in The New York Times by Elisabeth Rosenthal in 2014.
In her article, Rosenthal writes of a man who underwent elective neck surgery. Before the procedure, he made sure the hospital, surgeon, and the anesthesiologist on call were in his health plan’s network.
But during the surgery, an assistant surgeon, who was out of the patient’s network, was called in to help. The patient received a bill for $117,000.00.
www.healthline.com/health-news/are-we-really-going-to-see-the-end-of-surprise-medical-bills-in-2022#Defining-surprise-medical-bills
American healthcare system at it again...
I don't think we really have though.
New legislation is set to take effect in January 2022 that is meant to end so-called surprise medical bills for people receiving emergency care and other health services in the United States.
The No Surprises Act, which Congress passed and former President Donald Trump signed into law in December, received widespread bipartisan support.
Earlier this month, the Biden administration issued an interim final rule, the first step of finalizing the details of the law.
But what does this law mean? Will Americans really see an end to surprise medical bills?
Healthline spoke with two experts in healthcare policy and medical billing to suss out the details.
First, it’s important to define what a surprise medical bill is. There are many situations when a person can be surprised by a medical bill, but this legislation defines it in a specific context.
“Here, the term ‘surprise medical bill’ is used to refer to out-of-network balance bills that occur in which the patient was not expecting them or had no control over them,” said Christopher Garmon, PhD, assistant professor of health administration at the Henry W. Bloch School of Management at the University of Missouri–Kansas City.
An example of this is if a person breaks their leg and goes to the nearest emergency room that they know is in their health insurance plan’s network, but they end up being treated by an out-of-network doctor.
“So, you just assume all the providers there are also in your health plan’s network, and that’s not necessarily the case,” Garmon explained.
“And so you may encounter an emergency room physician or an anesthesiologist or pathologist that turns out is not in your health plan’s network, and then a few weeks after your visit, you get a large bill asking you to pay the difference between what your insurance company paid and the total bill charged,” he said.
Surprise medical bills have garnered much attention in the press in recent years. One of the most egregious cases was documented in The New York Times by Elisabeth Rosenthal in 2014.
In her article, Rosenthal writes of a man who underwent elective neck surgery. Before the procedure, he made sure the hospital, surgeon, and the anesthesiologist on call were in his health plan’s network.
But during the surgery, an assistant surgeon, who was out of the patient’s network, was called in to help. The patient received a bill for $117,000.00.
www.healthline.com/health-news/are-we-really-going-to-see-the-end-of-surprise-medical-bills-in-2022#Defining-surprise-medical-bills
American healthcare system at it again...
I don't think we really have though.