Springfield News-Sun: Medical billing surprises? New Ohio, federal laws aim to protect patients.
Patients who get stuck with bills after accidentally going out-of-network will be protected under two new laws — one state and one tucked into the new federal spending package.
The practice the bills take aim at is often called surprise billing and typically happens when an insured patient thinks they are in-network, such as a patient at an in-network hospital receiving care from a contractor there who is out of network.
The new state law will go into effect January 2022 and is for fully insured plans.
The federal law protecting against surprise bills comes after years of failed attempts and big lobbying spending on all sides. The federal law also goes into effect in 2022 and covers fully insured and self-insured patients.
The details still need worked out on how the federal and state laws will layer together in Ohio.