{"id":5260,"date":"2016-06-17T17:15:15","date_gmt":"2016-06-17T17:15:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/?p=5260"},"modified":"2016-06-17T17:15:15","modified_gmt":"2016-06-17T17:15:15","slug":"texas-lawmakers-study-regulations-on-surprise-medical-bills","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/?p=5260","title":{"rendered":"Texas Lawmakers Study Regulations on Surprise Medical Bills"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Mark Richardson<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

AUSTIN, Texas<\/strong> – Even though they may have health insurance, growing numbers of Texas consumers are getting unexpected bills from doctors not in the consumers’ health care network.<\/p>\n

A public policy group told state legislators recently that consumers need more protection from surprise medical bills, particularly those arising from emergency room visits.<\/p>\n

Stacey Pogue, a senior policy analyst with the Center for Public Policy Priorities<\/a>, told members of the state House Insurance Committee that unexpected bills can turn a medical emergency into a financial catastrophe.<\/p>\n

“It is very common that a consumer will get an out-of-network emergency service even if they go to an in-network hospital,” says Pogue. “We have a lot of hospitals in this state that contract with an insurance company but have not one single ER physician under that roof that takes that same insurance.”<\/p>\n

\"Analysts<\/a>

Analysts say surprise medical bills from out-of-network doctors can sometimes turn a medical emergency into a financial catastrophe. Photo: MinervaStudio\/iStockphoto<\/p><\/div>\n

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Pogue says consumers can’t choose which doctor treats them in an emergency room, and often have no choice in which hospital an ambulance takes them.<\/p>\n

She says patients are at their most vulnerable during medical emergencies and should not face a financial emergency later because of a surprise bill.<\/p>\n

Pogue told legislators that they should protect consumers by eliminating surprise bills from emergencies, eliminating bills from out-of-network doctors that patients do not choose, and improving and expanding the mediation system for out-of-network bills. She says consumers are losing out under the current billing system.<\/p>\n

“There’s fewer people protected because we put the onus on the consumer,” says Pogue. “I think that might work well for providers and insurers who go to mediation less, but I don’t think it works well for consumers. And the other thing is I think we end up giving the least help to the consumers who need it the most.”<\/p>\n

Pogue says at least nine other states have banned surprise bills in emergencies. The Texas Legislature is expected to tackle medical billing issues during its 2017 session.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Mark Richardson AUSTIN, Texas – Even though they may have health insurance, growing numbers of Texas consumers are getting unexpected bills from doctors not in the consumers’ health care network. A public policy group told state legislators recently that consumers need more protection from surprise medical bills, particularly those arising from emergency room visits. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":5261,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5260","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-state"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5260","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5260"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5260\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5262,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5260\/revisions\/5262"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5261"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5260"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5260"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5260"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}