Surprise! Medical bills for out-of-network docs land on patients

Patients throughout Georgia and the U.S. are vulnerable to getting hit with surprise bills, even when they use health insurance.

That’s because while a certain hospital may be in a patient’s insurance network, it may contract with emergency room doctors or other medical staff who aren’t. The result: patients get hit with hundreds of dollars in extra bills out of the blue.

For many people, paying those bills is difficult if not impossible. Nearly half of Americans could not come up with $400 for an emergency room visit without selling something or borrowing money, according to the Federal Reserve.

The Georgia Legislature is trying address the problem this week with two pieces of new legislation. But it’s far from a done deal.