Another form of surprise billing

Despite recent legislation to prevent surprise billing in the form of out-of-network providers, KFF Health News described another way that some physicians can surprise their patients with bills. Apparently, some physicians have started classifying certain "procedures" as surgery, despite those procedures being as removing a splinter. Classifying procedures as such allows physicians to bill more, and if a patient has not met the deductible, the patient may be the one paying. It seems that in many cases, when doctors are about to perform a procedure that will add an additional charge -- especially an unexpected one -- they should inform patients about the extra charge. For example, when a customer is having his car serviced in a repair shop, the mechanic generally recommends procedures, and the customer can decide which of the recommendations to pay for -- before the mechanic performs the procedures.

The article discussed some of the motivation behind this new practice. For a few decades now, physician compensation has been largely influenced by a committee that helps determine the relative value of different procedures (such as an office visit versus a wart removal), and the article explains that "Since surgeons are overrepresented on the committee, the valuation of anything defined as an operation has only increased, giving billers the incentive to classify even the most mundane interventions as surgery." It is not surprising that providers want to be paid more, but this method of classifying simple treatments as surgeries would likely be a surprise to many inside and outside the medical community.