skip to main content
skip to newscasts

Friday, March 29, 2024

Public News Service Logo
facebook instagram linkedin reddit youtube twitter
view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

The latest on the Key Bridge collapse, New York puts forth legislation to get clean energy projects on the grid and Wisconsin and other states join a federal summer food program to help feed kids across the country.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Republicans float conspiracy theories on the collapse of Baltimore's Key Bridge, South Carolina's congressional elections will use a map ruled unconstitutional, and the Senate schedules an impeachment trial for Homeland Secretary Mayorkas.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

Texas Lawmakers Urged to End Surprise Hospital Bills

play audio
Play

Thursday, February 26, 2015   

AUSTIN, Texas - Legislation at the state Capitol aims to put an end to surprise medical bills, or so-called "balance billing," which has left a growing number of Texans facing a financial crisis while trying to recover from a health crisis for which they thought they were covered.

Trey Berndt, associate state director for outreach and advocacy with AARP Texas, says the problem is many hospitals that are in-network under the state's major health insurance providers use physicians that are outside the network, unbeknownst to patients.

"Most consumers pay their premiums and look at their insurance card and it says usually a co-pay and some coinsurance, and that's all they expect to pay," Berndt says. "Yet they come home and get maybe sometimes thousands of dollars of bills later on."

A proposal now awaiting a committee hearing in the Texas House would end such surprise medical bills by limiting the patient's out-of-pocket to no more than they would have paid in-network.

Berndt says the legislation would also take consumers completely out of any billing disputes between insurers and providers.

"When somebody is in the ER, the last thing they're going to be thinking about is in-network doctors, out-of-network doctors," says Berndt. "They've gone to a hospital they believe is in their network and they expect the providers to work with their insurance company and that's not happening and that's what we absolutely need to fix."

Among those Texans who have had insult added to injury with a surprise medical bill is Hugh Smith of Cypress. His wife broke her back three years ago and while in the hospital, they explicitly requested only doctors within their insurance network.

"I met my deductibles and all the co-pays and everything and then all of a sudden we get a doctor sending us a bill for a full amount, not willing to talk about it and says he's exempt from the process because he was not a doctor requested by us or used by us," says Smith. "He was an advisor to the chief of surgery at the hospital."

After battling over that surprise bill for two-years, the Smiths were able to get the amount reduced, but still ended up having to pay $3,000. While the practice of balance billing is legal, Berndt says AARP considers it one of the most unfair practices in commercial health insurance today.


get more stories like this via email

more stories
The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments this week about the popular abortion pill Mifepristone and will weigh in on whether the U.S. Food and Drug Administration was correct in how it can be dosed and prescribed. (Ascannio/Adobe Stock)

Health and Wellness

play sound

Missouri residents are worried about future access to birth control. The latest survey from The Right Time, an initiative based in Missouri…


Social Issues

play sound

Wisconsin children from low-income families are now on track to get nutritious foods over the summer. Federal officials have approved the Badger …

Social Issues

play sound

Almost 2,900 people are unsheltered on any given night in the Beehive State. Gov. Spencer Cox is celebrating signing nine bills he says are geared …


The U.S. teaching workforce remains primarily white while the percentage of Black teachers has declined. However, the percentage of Asian and Latinx teachers is rising.(WavebreakMediaMicro/Adobestock)

Social Issues

play sound

Education advocates are calling on lawmakers to increase funding for programs to combat the teacher shortage. Around 37% of schools nationwide …

Environment

play sound

New York's Legislature is considering a bill to get clean-energy projects connected to the grid faster. It's called the RAPID Act, for "Renewable …

Social Issues

play sound

Earlier this month, a new Arizona Public Service rate hike went into effect and one senior advocacy group said those on a fixed income may struggle …

Social Issues

play sound

Michigan recently implemented a significant juvenile justice reform package following recommendations from a task force made up of prosecutors…

 

Phone: 303.448.9105 Toll Free: 888.891.9416 Fax: 208.247.1830 Your trusted member- and audience-supported news source since 1996 Copyright © 2021