A new California law that takes effect in January will offer people protection from costly and unexpected ambulance bills. Stephanie O'Neill of KFF Health News has more.
In California, nearly three-quarters of emergency ground ambulance rides result in patients receiving surprise, out-of-network bills. Those bills average about 12-hundred dollars - the highest in the nation, according to a December study. That's because a practice known as 'balance billing' allows an out-of-network provider to charge a person for the difference between what their insurance network pays and what the provider charges.
But starting January first, the new state law caps the amount a non-network ambulance operator can charge patients to the amount they would otherwise pay for an in-network ambulance.
It also caps bills for uninsured people to no more than the Medi-Cal or Medicare rate, whichever is greater. And it prohibits ambulance operators and debt collectors from reporting people to credit bureaus or taking legal action against them for at least one year after the initial bill.