NY's New "Surprise" Medical Bill Law

Health care consumers in New York had a great deal to celebrate when, on the last day of the Affordable Care Act’s first open enrollment period, the state legislature passed new consumer protections from “surprise bills"—medical bills to consumers that result from the unexpected use of out-of-network medical providers, or bills which impose far higher costs on consumers than they have reason to expect. The “Emergency Medical Services and Surprise Bills” law, together with associated changes in a number of other statutes, is a response to years of advocacy and reflects the considerable efforts of the State Department of Financial Services to bridge the different perspectives of consumers, the health insurance industry, and New York’s medical societies. Prior to the new law—which is effective April 1, 2015—insured individuals often complained about receiving inadequate reimbursement (or none at all) from their insurers for medical services that they received outside of a provider network. In many cases the patients were unaware that the medical services they were receiving were, in fact, out of network and thus more expensive. Many patients were not financially prepared to handle these additional costs. The problem was so common that these types of consumer complaints outnumbered all other complaints handled by the state’s health consumer assistance agencies, insurance regulators, and the state Attorney General’s Health Care Bureau. - See more at: http://familiesusa.org/blog/2014/04/new-york%E2%80%99s-new-surprise-bill-law-rolls-out-new-health-insurance-protections-consumers#sthash.SRn51QAY.dpuf

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http://familiesusa.org/blog/2014/04/new-york%E2%80%99s-new-surprise-bill-law-rolls-out-new-health-insurance-protections-consumers