Texas Is Latest State to Attack Surprise Medical Bills

Has a family member go to a private emergency room in Austin TX. When asking the ER if they accepted his insurance they said yes, many times. After the visit he recieved an $8000 bill. When confronted, the business stated they accepted the patients insurance however the insurance company would not accept the ER. Settled the $8000 bill for $300. Pretty sketchy.

Boy, imagine a system where part of your taxes could go towards a publicly funded healthcare system which would prevent problems such as this from arising in the first place.

My son had an emergency ER visit due to a cut right above his eye. The ER staff assured me repeatedly that they were in network. Turns out the ER was in network but they neglected to tell me that all the staff there were contractors and that the contract service company was out-of-network for my insurance.<p>So, a few months later I got hit with a surprise bill in the neighborhood of $2000... for what amounted to a few stitches.<p>I freaking hate the US health care system.

&gt; In fact, getting a steep hospital bill is something more Americans say is their biggest financial fear.<p>This is a pretty bad thing. I can&#x27;t imagine being sick and afraid of going to ER because there is a possibility of getting bankrupted.

I&#x27;m glad to see that more states are taking this more seriously. Finally we&#x27;re starting to head in the right direction. Here is the solution: &quot;When a hospital and insurer can&#x27;t agree on a price, the two parties will have to work it out — without ever billing the patient.&quot;<p>Although I would like to see more action taken to prevent hospitals from billing so high in the first place. Otherwise we just end up paying for in the insurance premium.<p>Also, they should make it illegal for &quot;out of network&quot; personel&#x2F;equipment to be used if you&#x27;re in a in-network hospital. or just make out-of-network illegal all together.

A lot of credit for movement on this issue should go to Vox. They have invested time and money into a data-driven investigation of this issue: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.vox.com&#x2F;2018&#x2F;2&#x2F;27&#x2F;16936638&#x2F;er-bills-emergency-room-hospital-fees-health-care-costs" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.vox.com&#x2F;2018&#x2F;2&#x2F;27&#x2F;16936638&#x2F;er-bills-emergency-ro...</a><p>It&#x27;s a good example of the role that a vibrant press plays in a democracy, and it might warrant considering adding vox.com and similar outlets to your ad blocker&#x27;s whitelist.

Is it possible that this is an issue where the parties could find...agreement?