Surprise Billing Hits Americans with Unexpected High Costs

Medical bills are already a huge concern for Americans who need medical care. An added issue many face is surprise billing—unexpected bills that show up added to the total cost of your visit.

CBS News is currently diving deep into the issues of surprise billing for medical issues in a series called “Medical Price Roulette,” produced in partnership with ClearHealthCosts.

The series features consumer investigative correspondent Anna Werner, who will talk about the various ways in which health care pricing fails the American consumer.

One person CBS talks to in their three-part series is a woman who was hit with surprise billing after going through a miscarriage. Another person had to undergo emergency back surgery, but was later hit with surprise medical bills not covered by his insurance (which claimed his surgery was not medically necessary) amounting to more than $650,000.

Four out of every 10 consumers said they had received surprise billing for health care sometime in the previous year, according to a 2018 poll by Kaiser Health. According to consumers, half of those bills were over $500. In some cases, patients could be hit with thousands of dollars — or even hundreds of thousands of dollars — in surprise billing.

One thing that factors into surprise billing is that medical costs can range dramatically. For instance, CBS News found that a simple blood test in San Francisco can cost anywhere from $15 to $126. Costlier procedures may vary much more dramatically. And medical insurance may not be able to help nearly as much as patients often expect it to.

“Plans will have different deductibles, different amounts of co-insurance, different amount of co-payments,” said Dr. Aaron Carroll, a pediatrician and health services researcher. “And it also depends of course, what they’re charging—what the price is, and then how much you are responsible for that price. That number has gotten much higher than people would think. It can be a significant part of people’s incomes.”

CBS News talked to a woman who suffered a miscarriage and was hit with a significant surprise medical bill. Her first visit to a local birthing center included two ultrasounds and a $150 bill. The next day, she went to the hospital and received two more ultrasounds—this time with a bill of $1,500.

“Most of our viewers, I think it would be fair to say, don’t understand the bills that they get, don’t understand why the price was so high,” Werner said. She asked Carroll if there is any transparency in the pricing of the healthcare industry.

“Oh my God, no,” Carroll told her. “I’m laughing only in the sense that you think patients are the only ones that think there’s no transparency. I mean, people working in the system don’t often know what the price is. When my patients ask me what the price is, I don’t have an answer for them…Nothing about the United States’ healthcare system really makes sense.”

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.

Learn More

This article is not legal advice. It is presented 
for informational purposes only.