A point of disappearance ‘surprise bills’ in the hospitals of the United States

New York – The “surprise invoices” that already cost millions of dollars to patients in state hospitals are finally considered to disappear thanks to a new legislation that will be implemented in 2022.

La ley, escondida en elmenso packet de estimulu approved in Washington to close the year, busac acabar con una pradica pradaada por casi por todos, pero que ha tardado anos en ser frenada a causa des multimillonarios esfuerzos de “lobby” de las kompañas que se beneficiary of ella.

The known as “surprise invoices” are usually when an emergency patient is in a hospital that is located inside the red covered by his security, but is treated by a doctor and another professional who is not inside this red.

This medical bill invoices its services separately and has a higher price – but does not have a contract with the insurer – and, when the security is cleared – to be excessively high costs – given to the patient on payment.

According to various studies, the situation is as high as 20% of the times in which a stadium visitor visits the emergency rooms of a hospital, where it is obviously not in a situation of choice as a doctor treats them without informing them of the costs and puede enfrentarse.

It is also common to find this type of situation in hospitalized hospitals, with ambulances that are not part of the network covered by the insurer to ensure that the medical center is located.

“It’s terrible,” said Efe Fiona Scott Morton, a professor of economics at Yale University who has been researching the problem for years.

Prices inflated

The “surprise bill” media is a little over $ 600, per its homes the cases where ascending to miles of dollars or including over $ 100,000.

“These prices are at least three times higher than the habitats”, explains Scott Morton, who submits that, in anticipation of an agreement with the insurers, the doctor can “literally cover the price he wants”.

The phenomenon of “surprise invoices” has disappeared over the past few years, with staff endowment companies having converted it into its business model and attracting the interests of investment firms.

The tactics of these companies do not work to treat doctors who work in emergency rooms and care facilities between the hospital and the insurers, so that they can cover more costs.

“It’s an engaging tactic that is clearly hitting consumers and increasing health care costs.”, Scott Morton.

Without embargo, with millions of dollars invested in this business, various private equity firms have hosted large sums of money in recent years to ensure that a form of business is regulated that has been widely criticized by insurers and users.

It is unpopular for these practices to be clarified with the bipartisan support that the law provides that the test in a legislative state is tremendously fractured.

A solution, but not complete

As part of this year, when medical providers and insurance companies do not agree to pay a price, we will use an arbitration system to provide a “just” basis, in part, at the expense of similar services.

Thus, patients are protected by these “surprise invoices” and, like many, tend to go to the pages that their security plan requires for treatment within their red.

The arbitration mechanism decided ultimately is fruitful, in part, from the “lobby” efforts of the industry, which therefore avoid a total ban on the practice of other forms such as antiquated figs.

According to some analysts, the crisis of the COVID-19 has aroused their interest, but the legislators have repaired more and the time to burn something that benefits many medicines in a complete pandemic.

The new one also excludes the ambulances, which are responsible for an important number of “surprise invoices”, although the practice in the case of air transport, which generates some of the most exaggerated surpluses.

In an emblematic case of this problem, last April a female covider with COVID-19 was found with a bill of more than $ 52,000 being transferred by helicopter from a Philadelphia hospital to another 30 kilometers away from the institute intubada e onbewuste.