Congressman working to end pain of surprise medical bills

“Overwhelming!” That is what I was told by a woman in my district who cares for her 95-year old grandmother who was struck with dementia. “The physical and emotional anguish for both of us just cannot be put into words. And then there are the disruptions to life. My whole family, including my children, suddenly found themselves with this huge weight that never seems to let up.”

It is within this world of pain and trauma that surprise medical bills arrive as uninvited visitors and do the most harm. For this family, the bills came pouring in from providers they had never heard of and from offices they had never visited.

I recently introduced H.R. 4223, the Protecting Patients from Surprise Medical Bills Act. This companion bill to legislation introduced by Sen. Rick Scott in the Senate seeks to do for America what he and I did for Florida while I served in the Florida House — offer some relief by cutting surprise medical bills.

Surprise medical billing has for decades been a known trap in our healthcare system. No one who has taken the necessary steps to obtain health insurance should ever have to worry about incurring crippling debt and additional stress when seeking medical care.

In 2016, I co-sponsored Florida HB 221, legislation spearheaded by then-Gov. Scott aimed at combating surprise medical billing. Surprise billing often takes the form of “balance billing,” a legal and routine practice that bills a patient as an out-of-pocket expense for the difference, or balance, between what a health care provider charges and an insurer agrees to reimburse. Surprise!

HB 221 directly addressed this problem by prohibiting out-of-network health care providers from balance billing patients with certain health care plans under a variety of scenarios. Therefore, within Florida and for the health insurance plans regulated by the state, patients will never again have to fear surprise medical bills for emergency services, or for unknowingly receiving out-of-network treatment at in-network hospitals.

Unfortunately, health care plans regulated by the federal government, such as employersponsored healthcare plans, fall outside state regulations like HB 221. The bills Sen. Scott and I have introduced would apply the solution that has worked for Florida at the federal level. They both greatly reduce balance billing for many patients and take them entirely out of billing disputes.

None of us are immune to health problems. I have personally felt the fear of being rushed to the emergency room, and in that moment, I was entirely focused on my health and my family and not on my healthcare network and the nuances of my health insurance. As for my constituent and her grandmother, she later shared, “Now the doctors think she might have cancer. Even though she is insured, I’m still not sure we can afford to treat her and cover the additional legal fees to fight the extra charges. Why must we have to choose?” She’s right, and in this great nation, her words should haunt us all, “Even though she is insured, I’m not sure we can afford to treat her.”