MESSAGE FROM THE CEO Help Your Patients Avoid Surprise Medical Bills W


hether you are talking to your patients, friends or family mem- bers, chances are someone has a story about a time they, or


someone they know, received a medical bill they were not expecting. It also is likely that at least some of those invoices were for a signifi- cant amount of money.


Most often, patients get these surprise medical bills when they get


emergency medical care and have no chance to shop for providers, consult with their insurance provider or compare rates before getting the care they need. In reality, patients can receive these bills any- time one of their care providers is out-of-network with the patient’s insurer and the patient does not expect an invoice from that provider. For more than a year, in response to their constituents’ concerns


about surprise medical bills, many members of Congress have been conducting hearings, listening to expert testimony and proposing diverse legislative fixes for this problem. As this issue of ASC Focus goes to press, a number of those proposals are still wending their way through the rule-making process. At ASCA, we know that ASCs don’t need complicated legislation


or regulatory policy to do right by their patients. We know that ASCs routinely work with their patients to help them understand the costs of their care. We also recognize, however, that without careful con- versation, the potential for these surprise bills remains. To that end, with this issue of ASC Focus, we are sending every


ASC that is an ASCA member a sample message to use when talking to patients about their bills. Post this message by your desk to use as a reference in conversation with your patients, copy it to use as a handout for your patients or download a digital copy from ascassociation.org/avoidsmb. Then, adapt it to your ASC and insert it into patient emails as appropriate. In addition to discussing the various bills a patient should expect fol-


Seeking Authors


ASC Focus is seeking the contribution of articles by guest authors. If you have the expertise and time to write for us, we’d be interested in hearing from you.


Please see our editorial guidelines at ascfocus.org/about and submit your story proposal to smukerji@ascassociation.org.


lowing care, this model language encourages patients to call their insurer to determine if all their care providers are in or out of their network. ASCs always put their patients first. Helping to protect them from sur- prise medical bills and encouraging them to fully understand their insur- ance benefits is just another way to add value to their ASC experience.


Bill Prentice Chief Executive Officer


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ASC FOCUS APRIL 2020 | ascfocus.org


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