By Madison Harden-Stein and Jack Hoadley
Whereas the federal No Surprises Act does a lot to defend shoppers from shock medical payments, the regulation has a major hole: shoppers can nonetheless face giant, surprising payments in medical emergencies when the ambulance that took them to the hospital was out of community. Annually, about 3 million individuals with non-public insurance coverage depend on floor ambulance transport in emergencies — in circumstances once they usually haven’t any capability to decide on a supplier. Multiple of 4 of these privately insured ambulance journeys could end in a shock invoice, leaving sufferers owing lots of of {dollars} out of pocket. In 2021, the common floor ambulance invoice for these with business insurance coverage was $1,093.
In 2024, the Advisory Committee on Floor Ambulance and Affected person Billing (GAPB) issued suggestions for federal reforms to deal with the issue. To this point, federal motion has stalled, however states have taken the lead in defending shoppers from floor ambulance shock billing. On this weblog submit for the Commonwealth Fund, Madison Harden-Stein and Jack Hoadley discover how states are moving into the hole left by the No Surprises Act. This 12 months alone, 5 states have enacted new legal guidelines, every experimenting with totally different fee methodologies, service scopes, enforcement, and shopper protections. In complete, individuals in 22 states now have some safety from shock payments for floor ambulance providers.
Learn the complete weblog submit right here.
