Surprised By A Medical Bill?

Nothing is worse than worrying about how much you will have to pay for medical care. Effective January 1, 2022, the new “No Surprises Medical Act” is supposed to make medical billing more certain.

Don’t have health insurance?

If you don’t have insurance, your medical provider is required to provide a “good faith” estimate of all charges before you get care. If you are billed more than $400 above the estimate, there is a process in place for disputing the charges.

Have health insurance?

This new law provides bans surprise bills for emergency medical care from an out-of-network provider without prior authorization.  Other specific out-of-network charges are also banned. Since you can sign an authorization, be careful to read that stack of papers you always have to sign when requesting medical care. The new law establishes a complaints process.

Will this new law really stop surprise medical bills? This remains to be seen. In my opinion, the enforcement procedures (complaints and disputes) will make or break the effectiveness of this new law.