A 2016 article in the New England Journal of Medicine by Yale economists Zack Cooper and Fiona Scott Morton exposed a pricey national problem: surprise medical bills.
In a study of 2.2 million emergency room visits across the United States, they found that 1 in 5 patients who went to hospitals within their health insurance networks were treated by an out-of-network doctor and potentially incurred unexpected, often exorbitant expenses as a result. The average “surprise bill,” they calculated, was $622.55, although the charges could soar into the thousands.
View the full article on the YaleNews website