Lawmakers Introduce Legislation To Curtail Surprise Medical Bills

There are good surprise and there are bad surprise. Falling into the latter category are unexpected medical bills, which affect nearly 30% of privately insured Americans. This week, lawmakers took steps to shield consumers from these often burdensome tabs.

Texas Representative Lloyd Doggett, along with 20 co-sponsors, introduced the Ending Surprise Billing Act with the aim to put a stop to unfair and unexpected out-of-network charges.

Under the proposed legislation, patients can no longer be charged balance bills if they go to an in-network facility in an emergency.

In the case of non-emergencies, they cannot be balanced billed unless they are given 24-hours-notice that an out-of-network specialist is providing care, an estimate of the charges, and then provide written consent to those charges.

If the conditions of the legislation aren’t met, patients would only be responsible for what they would have paid for services if they received them from in-network providers.

“Patients under anesthesia shouldn’t have to pay out-of-pocket unexpectedly for a health care provider outside their insurance coverage network,” Doggett said in statement. “Surprise billing is a complex problem. But we should all agree that requiring patients to pay unfair and unexpected bills is not the solution.”

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