More than 60% of Americans still fear receiving unexpectedly high medical bills after visits to hospital emergency rooms (ERs) even after Congress has passed legislation to limit them, a Morning Consult poll said on Thursday
WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 13th January, 2022) More than 60% of Americans still fear receiving unexpectedly high medical bills after visits to hospital emergency rooms (ERs) even after Congress has passed legislation to limit them, a Morning Consult poll said on Thursday.
"Sixty one percent of US adults said they are concerned about getting a surprise medical bill from the emergency room, while 36% said they hesitated to seek care at the ER or skipped it altogether because of surprise billing concerns," the poll said. "Nineteen percent of adults said they had seen, read or heard 'a lot' or 'some' about the No Surprises Act."
Congress passed the No Surprises Act in late 2020 which includes a Federal ban on surprise medical billing and it takes effect this month.
"The new surprise billing protections, which Congress passed in late 2020, bar health insurers from charging patients the balance when they're provided emergency services from doctors and hospitals that they don't realize aren't covered under their health plan. Instead, payers and providers are expected to work it out among themselves," Morning Consult said.
However, the law does not apply to non-emergency services offered outside of a hospital, so that patients could still be subject to unexpectedly high charges from other providers if they do not check carefully to make sure they are covered, the polling company noted.
