CBS News article: Shocked by surprise medical bills?This is an interesting article that sheds some additional light on a difficult topic, but actually provides little practical advice.
Nevertheless, I am going to park it on my page and put a copy of it in my efiles. I used to write a good bit on health, medicine, the history of health and medicine, and public policy until the subject became too toxic and various advocates began to advocate for particular positions by being particularly unpleasant.
Locally, not a month goes by in which someone does not reach out for help negotiating unexpected excessive medical bills – and increasingly folks are coming up against incredibly poor customer service. It appears that too many healthcare and insurance providers have become far too big to manage.
Anyway – the article: CBS News – “Shocked by surprise medical bills? Here's what you can do” by Walecia Konrad - CBS News - Sunday, March 17, 2019
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/surprise-medical-bills-send-you-into-shock-how-to-avoid-getting-hit/
57 percent of Americans have been hit with a bill not covered by their insurance.
Seeing out-of-network medical professionals is the leading cause of surprise bills.
The problem is so bad that Congress may actually take bipartisan action to fix it.
Meantime, you can take several steps to avoid a surprise bill.
Surprise medical bills seem to getting more outrageous by the day. There's the Texas man who was billed $108,951 when he was taken to an out-of-network hospital following a heart attack. Or the Vermont skier who paid $18,442 in hospital bills after she broke her leg on the slopes. Then there's the almost $18,000 urine test from an out-of-network lab.
Surprise medical billing — when patients receive a bill not covered by insurance through no fault of their own — has affected 57 percent of American adults, according to a recent University of Chicago survey.
These unwelcome requests for payment most often come after patients are treated at hospitals and emergency rooms by physicians and other medical professionals who aren't part of their health insurance network.
Four out of 10 respondents to a recent Kaiser Family Foundation poll said they had an unexpected bill from a hospital, lab or doctor in the past year.
General outrage over outsized medical charges and efforts to publicize surprise medical bills by Kaiser News, CBS and other outlets may have encouraged Congress to engage in one of its few bipartisan efforts.
Read much more here: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/surprise-medical-bills-send-you-into-shock-how-to-avoid-getting-hit/
Medicine Health, Medicine Health cost
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