There is a lot in New York State\u2019s budget that is important. Children need schooling, the poor and the sick need to be taken care of, the roads and bridges need repair, the public needs to be protected, and the courts need to administer justice.<\/p>\n
But there are some things in the budget which are worth fighting for and not accepting “no” for an answer.<\/p>\n
One of those issues deals with health insurance.<\/p>\n
Two years ago the Cuomo Administration issued a report examining the issue of “surprise medical bills.”\u00a0 A surprise medical bill is when a consumer who has done everything reasonably possible to use in-network hospitals and doctors, but nonetheless receives a bill from a specialist or other provider whom the consumer did not or could not know was out-of-network. \u00a0The report called for action to protect consumers from this practice.<\/p>\n
And action must be taken.\u00a0 Complaints of undisclosed and excessive charges occur even in emergency care settings, when no patient is thinking about in-network coverage.\u00a0 Unexpected and, sometimes, excessive medical bills from out-of-network providers contribute to the growing problem of consumer medical debt, which continues to be a significant cause of personal bankruptcy.<\/p>\n
Unfortunately, since release of the governor\u2019s report two years ago this week, nothing has happened to protect patients from this practice.\u00a0 As a result,they are at risk of unanticipated medical costs that can mean thousands,if not tens of thousands, of dollars.\u00a0 Nationally, one in three Americans with<\/em> health insurance reports having a hard time paying medical bills, one of the root causes is out-of-network charges.<\/p>\n Too often, consumers end up receiving out-of-network services without their knowledge. \u00a0In an emergency situation, a consumer may end up in an out-of-network hospital or treated by an out-of-network provider, with no time to choose otherwise.<\/p>\n Another consumer may have a non-emergency procedure in an in-network hospital or clinic, only to find that an out-of-network provider such as an anesthesiologist played some part in their care. These individuals are then faced with often enormous “surprise” bills. For example, one consumer complained of receiving emergency surgery at an in-network hospital, only to find out later that an out-of-network surgeon had performed the procedure; he was billed $58,000.<\/p>\n Another consumer got a bill for neck surgery \u00a0 The patient thought she was in-network based on the surgeon\u2019s web site and conversations with his staff. \u00a0But he wasn”t, and after the surgery the doctor sends her a bill for $101,000<\/em>.<\/p>\n Obviously, these financial hits are far too big for more consumers to handle.\u00a0 So, the remedy should be clear:<\/p>\n For two years, New Yorkers have been exposed to this possible financial catastrophe.\u00a0 But hopefully not for much longer.<\/p>\n The governor put in his budget plan a proposal to protect consumers.\u00a0 The governor\u2019s budget proposes to protect patients from “surprise medical bills” by banning their use in emergency settings and by increasing disclosures that must be made to consumers by insurers.<\/p>\n Now it\u2019s up to lawmakers to act.\u00a0 As they put the final budget together they must<\/em> ensure that consumers are not on the hook for surprise medical bills and that, in non-emergency, elective procedures, patients are adequately informed of the potential financial risks of going out-of-network.<\/p>\n The state budget cannot be considered complete until this issue is addressed.<\/p>\n That\u2019s all for now.\u00a0 I\u2019ll be keeping an eye on the Capitol a<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" There is a lot in New York State\u2019s budget that is important. Children need schooling, the poor and the sick need to be taken care of, the roads and bridges need repair, the public needs to be protected, and the courts need to administer justice. But there are some things in the budget which are […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[38,65,66],"class_list":["post-986","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-budget","tag-health-insurance","tag-out-of-network-providers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/986","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=986"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/986\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":988,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/986\/revisions\/988"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=986"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=986"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=986"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n