Healthcare DIVE April 13, 2021
Dive Brief:
- A new report in Health Affairs seeks to measure the financial impact surprise medical bills had on adult patients with private health insurance between 2001 and 2016.
- Researchers found that ER doctors retained a larger share of what they initially charged, or what is considered the sticker price, when patients were unexpectedly out-of-network compared to those who were not. Put simply, those physicians retained a larger share of the pie from out-of-network patients.
- In fact, patients who likely had a surprise bill ended up paying ER physicians more than 10 times as much as those who did not, according to the report. Patients with likely surprise bills paid on average $151 in out-of-pocket payments compared with roughly...