Saying that “surprise” medical bills for emergency room visits are unfair to patients, Senator Bill Nelson, Democrat of Florida, is asking the Federal Trade Commission to investigate the practice.
A study published in The New England Journal of Medicine last month found that many patients around the nation were being hit with big out-of-network bills even though they had taken care to go to hospitals that their insurers considered in-network. Such billing occurred in about 22 percent of visits covered by one large commercial insurance company alone, the study found.