Patients Report Surprise Medical Bills at EmCare Hospitals

Lawyers are investigating consumer claims that patients were hit with surprise medical bills after being treated at EmCare hospitals.

If you were hit with a surprise medical bill after an emergency room or hospital visit at EmCare hospitals, or if you thought your insurance would cover more of your medical bill, you may have a legal claim. Contacting an experienced medical bill lawyer could help you determine if you could get compensation for surprise expenses or unexpected out-of-network charges.

In many cases, patients with insurance are charged one rate to go to hospitals and medical providers that are in their insurance network and are charged a higher rate to go to hospitals that are outside of their network. Most patients are aware of the distinction between the two groups of providers an actively try to use in-network services to save money.

However, many patients are discovering that they get hit with surprise, out-of-network charges even though they actively chose to have a procedure or a service done at an in-network hospital. Patients might assume that a doctor in an in-network hospital will be in-network for them as well, but this isn’t always the case.

It can be difficult to know when this is the case until you’ve already been hit with a surprise out-of-network medical bill. These surprise bills are also known as balance bills and can be sent after a patient thinks they have paid all of their medical bills.

In many cases, this can occur when a hospital contracts with physicians or service providers. Effectively, the patient gets billed not only for services conducted by the hospital, at an in-network rate but gets billed separately for services provided by contracted physicians and other providers.

One such contractor is EmCare. Many patients may be going to EmCare hospitals without even knowing they are, because they might receive a bill from a specific EmCare physician, instead of EmCare itself.

Patients are fighting back against EmCare and EmCare hospitals with a class action lawsuit. Patients claim that EmCare and EmCare hospitals make no effort to warn patients that emergency room services provided by EmCare often do not accept the same insurance as the hospital.

Especially when they are receiving emergency services, it is possible that a patient may not know or choose what services they receive, so do not have the option to refuse treatment not covered by their insurance, or billed at an out-of-network rate.

According to the EmCare hospitals class action lawsuit, EmCare makes a practice of not warning patients that their insurance may not cover EmCare services, to maximize the profits they can make from patients. Numerous patients have reported that EmCare has billed them the highest possible billing code available for emergency services.

Hospitals, as well as patients, are beginning to fight back against contractors jacking up prices for hospital patients. Recently, UnitedHealth created a website that advertises the billing policies of Envision Healthcare, a contractor that runs UnitedHealth’s emergency services. UnitedHealth is reportedly attempting to renegotiate pricing contracts for Envision’s services to get a better deal for their patients.

Join a Free Surprise Medical Bill Class Action Lawsuit Investigation

If you were hit with a surprise medical bill from an out-of-network doctor at an in-network hospital, you may be entitled to compensation.

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