Even doctors can be surprised by medical bills

KFF Health News published an account of a doctor who was treated in an emergency room, and struggled with the ensuing bills. The hospital charged almost $64,000, including a charge for an overnight stay. Unfortunately, the insurer denied the overnight stay, deeming it not medically necessary. Since the medically appropriate ankle surgery was bundled with the overnight stay, the insurer denied the entire bundle. The subsequent followup attempts by the doctor to reduce the bill suggests that the status quo is not practical: apparently, the doctor was supposed to leave the hospital while taking opioid painkillers to avoid having to pay for the overnight stay, allowing the insurer to cover just the care that was deemed medically appropriate.

While the story concludes with a resolution favorable to the doctor, it appears that it was mostly the hospital that reduced its charges, rather than the insurer agreeing to cover more. Either way, patients who did not have as many resources might very well have been stuck with a much higher bill than this doctor ended up with.