The highest percentage of specialty surprise claims came from anesthesiology, at 16 percent. Primary care represented 13 percent, and emergency medicine 11 percent. (Photo: Shutterstock)

A new study finds that one in seven patients are hit with a surprise medical bill—an out-of-network charge for a medical service—even though they were admitted to an in-network hospital.

The new analysis, from the Health Care Cost Institute (HCCI), looked at 620,000 patients across 37 states and the District of Columbia in 2016. “Overall, we found that 14.5 percent of these admissions had at least one associated out-of-network professional claim; that is, roughly 1 in 7 patients received a surprise bill despite obtaining care at an in-network hospital,” the report said.

Continue Reading for Free

Register and gain access to:

  • Breaking benefits news and analysis, on-site and via our newsletters and custom alerts
  • Educational webcasts, white papers, and ebooks from industry thought leaders
  • Critical converage of the property casualty insurance and financial advisory markets on our other ALM sites, PropertyCasualty360 and ThinkAdvisor
NOT FOR REPRINT

© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.