New Florida law provides suprise medical bill protections

Medical bills can hit some pretty high amounts. So, one of the last things a person likely wants to see in relation to medical care they have received is surprise medical bills on top of the ones they were expecting.

A new law has been passed here in Florida aimed at protecting consumers against one particular type of surprise bill: a surprise bill from an out-of-network provider for care a person received at a health care facility that was in their insurance plan’s network.

The new law makes it so that, generally, when a patient whose health plan is a preferred provider organization plan or an exclusive provider organization plan receives qualifying care at an in-network health care facility, the patient’s bills for the care are generally to be limited to the billing levels allowed under their insurance plan, even for inadvertent (from the patient’s perspective) out-of-network-provider-given care they ended up receiving. This law is aimed at preventing the above-mentioned type of surprise bills for consumers with PPO and EPO plans. Health Medical Organization plan members already had these kinds of protections.

What overall effects do you think this new law will end up having for Florida consumers?

Now, there are other sources of surprise medical bills. Also, even without surprise bills, a person can end up owing a lot in relation to medical care they received.

So, even with the new protections, there are still plenty of situations in which a Florida consumer could experience problems keeping up with their medical bills. Experienced bankruptcy lawyers can provide individuals facing such problems with guidance on what debt relief tactics might be able to help with their situation.

Source: Sun Sentinel, “Surprise medical bill protection signed into law,” Ron Hurtibise, April 15, 2016