re: Why do hospitals have their people send separate bills?

quote:

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Can you make it clear when you walk into the ER or get admitted that you only want to be seen by in-network physicians? Because if not, this is ridiculous and needs to be fixed

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No you usually can't. Usually if a it's a true emergency, insurance companies are supposed to cover imaging, surgeries, etc usijg whatever your emergency policy is within your insurance. If it's not a true emergency (I.e. you could've have been sent home and followed up outpt with a doctor in your network), they won't cover those situations.

This same situation also happens if for elective cases. You may schedule a surgery with a surgeon in your network at a facility within the network, but get billed by the anesthesiologist of the radiologist who weren't in network.

I agree it's shite. You shouldn't have to expect the pt to track down every provider who may potentially participate in their care. those hospitals should force providers/groups to contract with the same insurance they contract with as well in order to utilize their facilities. Unfortunately this doesn't happen in many cases, and some providers/group purposefully do not contract with the same insurance company so that they have balance bill. Tsome hospital may not either care or don't have the clout to force this as they desperately need providers to cover services.

There are a few states that have protection against this.