Thread: Patients saved from huge ER bills by new law

Patients saved from huge ER bills by new law

Insurers can no longer pay less for ‘out of network’ hospital care
By Maggie Mertens
updated 5:12 a.m. PT, Fri., May 21, 2010

When Kelly Arellanes fell off a horse and suffered a severe head injury in rural Arkansas, medics said she would need to be airlifted immediately to the nearest hospital — 50 miles away in Fort Smith. There, emergency surgery saved her life — but at a cost.

The hospital wasn't in her insurance network, so she and her husband ended up with $20,000 in out-of-pocket expenses that they wouldn't have incurred at their network hospitals 150 miles away in Little Rock.

If the new health law had already been enacted, Arellanes wouldn’t have had such a big emergency bill. Under the law, insurance companies must extend several new protections to patients who receive emergency care. One of the biggest guarantees: insurance companies can no longer pay less for emergency care at “out of networkâ€

I feel truly sorry for this couple. Too bad the nice lady wasn't illegal. It would have all been free.