A new law in the New Year promises to protect consumers from surprise medical billing.
Part of the stimulus bill passed in 2020 includes the "No Surprises Act" which promises to protect consumers from having to pay bills they thought their insurance companies already paid. Among the provisions, surprise billing for emergency services will be banned.
Patients will also be protected from being billed for medical care they received from a provider who they did not know was outside their network --- even at an in-network facility.
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If there’s any bill that has to be paid, it’s between the insurance company, the doctor, and the hospital. "The consumer is left out of it," said Craig Gussin, President of Auerbach and Gussin Insurance.
Gussin said this is a good bill that will protect consumers, but he said it will be “even better" when it also includes billing for ground ambulances.
“It’s unfair when someone is taken by ambulance to a hospital that they had no idea that the ambulance probably doesn’t take their insurance, and that they’re going to be on the hook for it," said Gussin.
