State Lawmakers Approve Legislation Shielding Most Texans From Surprise Medical Bills
A surprise medical bill may be a thing of the past for many Texans. In a unanimous vote, the Texas House approved a Senate bill banning health care providers from sending steep medical bills to insured Texans in emergencies.
Senate Bill 1264 passed the Texas House on a 146-0 vote. If signed into law, it would remove patients from the middle of disputes between a health insurance company and a hospital or other medical provider. This doesn't apply to Texans with federally regulated plans, which account for roughly 40 percent of the state's health insurance market.
Surprise medical billing typically happens when someone with health insurance goes to a hospital during an emergency and that hospital is out-of-network. It also happens if that patient goes to an in-network hospital and their doctors or medical providers are not in-network. Sometimes insurance companies and medical providers won’t agree on what’s a fair price for that care and patients end up with a hefty medical bill.
SB 1264 prohibits those bills from being sent to patients in the first place. Instead the law would allow providers and insurers to enter into arbitration with one another to negotiate a payment. The legislation also creates state regulatory authority over that arbitration process.
Read more: https://www.kut.org/post/state-lawmakers-approve-legislation-shielding-most-texans-surprise-medical-bills
