Just when you think our healthcare insurance system can’t get any worse, it does.
This is an opinion piece, but Kaiser did an article also.
Investors’ Deep-Pocket Push To Defend Surprise Medical Bills
Bottom line: the surprise billing from out of network services in such fields as ER, anesthesiology, neo-natal, etc., where patients have the least likely opportunity to check network status, are purposefully designed by private equity firms. And they lobby hard to keep surprise billing. It is a great profit center to charge insured patients big bucks without their knowledge.
But, hey, if the patient is too lazy to check credentials and network status while bleeding, screw him or her.
And evidently they do.
Tidewater News and Opinion Forum 
Could be worse. When was the last time you took your car into a mechanic for other than a routine maintenance call? Wow, talk about surprise billing. If only we came with warranties.
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We don’t come with warranties. Except maybe from Mom who will swear that “he really is a nice boy”.
But ACA tried to address some form of outcome based medicine. And Medicare does try to hold readmissions for procedural errors to a minimum with its reimbursement policies. Our fee for service is an outrageous incentive for over-treatment and, of course, billing. Especially in a corporate investor world of hospital and provider groups.
This “surprise billing” scam is like taking your car for an oil change. The shop mechanic was out sick so they brought in an automotive engineer at $125/hr to do the job.
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RE: “This ‘surprise billing’ scam is like taking your car for an oil change.”
Where’s the scam?
When you take your car for an oil change, you make a contract with the shop to provide it at a set price. When you go to the hospital, you may have a contract with an insurance company, but there’s no set price. Under those circumstances, surprises shouldn’t be surprising.
Whose fault is it when people expect more than they are entitled to?
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It is late and I am recovering from surgery. I don’t think you understand the “surprise billing” issue.
Please check the links. Thanks.
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RE: “I don’t think you understand the ‘surprise billing’ issue.”
I understand it just fine. That’s why I ask, “Where’s the scam?”
Because there isn’t one.
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We disagree.
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