Column: A new law aims to protect you from surprise (read: bonkers) medical bills

The No Surprises Act, which took effect this month, makes it illegal for hospitals to slap patients with sky-high charges for out-of-network care. “Too many Americans have been shocked by surprise medical bills and forced to pay up through credit report coercion,” said CFPB Director Rohit Chopra. What he means by “credit report coercion” is healthcare providers threatening to let debt collectors hold patients’ credit scores hostage unless they pay even the most wildly inflated medical bill. Researchers at USC and the Brookings Institution said an arbitration clause “was a key demand of provider groups, who likely hope that they will be able to extract higher prices via an arbitration process.” Xavier Becerra, the health and human services secretary who previously served as California’s attorney general, said in a statement that the No Surprises Act “is the most critical consumer protection law since the Affordable Care Act.” “We are taking patients out of the middle of the food fight between insurers and providers, and ensuring they aren’t met with eye-popping, bankruptcy-inducing medical bills,” he said. It’s also yet another dysfunctional aspect of the profit-focused U.S. healthcare system that could be eliminated overnight with introduction of a “Medicare for all” approach that would make bills transparent, consistent and reasonable.