A new venue for surprise medical bills

Enough people were upset by surprise medical bills that Congress passed the No Surprises Act in 2020, meant to eliminate instances of patients going to a facility that is in-network, but receiving a bill from an out-of-network provider. However, KFF Health News published an article recounting how one patient was surprised by an out-of-network bill when opting for a remote visit with her usual health system.

One issue appears to be that the No Surprises Act might not have anticipated remote visits, since it seems to apply to specific facility types (and not all facilities). The legislation allows for out-of-network service, provided that the patient gets advanced notice, and another issue in this particular case appears to be that the consent forms were "signed" by the patient after the consultation (the patient does not remember signing such forms). A third issue is the cost of the visit came out to be $660 (for a visit that was between 49 minutes and 59 minutes), when the patient recalls the visit actually only being five minutes. A fourth issue is that the patient saw a cost of $60.

It also seems that requiring sick patients to read and understand fine print when they are trying to book an urgent appointment is less than fair. Overall, this surprise bill seems like a terrible customer experience and is reminiscent of what lead to the No Surprises Act in the first place.