If you have health insurance and you received treatment at an emergency room that was billed to you as out of network you may have been scammed!
As anyone who has been unlucky enough to have been injured or been sick and needed an ambulance, you later received a bill from an ambulance company. This bill may also list an emergency room doctor who was not on your insurance plan and who you did not ask to be treated by.
Maybe you already paid most of your bills through your health insurance but covering your deductible put a giant dent into your budget (or your savings or your credit card balance). Now you receive a bill with an out-of-network expense after you already paid, what you thought, were all your medical bills.
This was a really common problem that caused financial problems for many people.
Now we have some help! The No Surprises Act update took effect on January 1, 2022 and it amends a huge swath of federal laws and regulations to provide mechanisms for consumers to avoid these medical surprises.
What, indeed, is the point of paying a monthly premium for emergency room coverage if, once at the emergency room, you were going to be treated by an out-of-network physician or ambulance company?
Unfortunately, if you received the treatment prior to January 1, 2022 you are not covered by the Act’s protections. But starting this year, 2022, you are not going to see those bills anymore.
If you received medical treatment after January 1, 2022 and you received a surprise medical bill, your rights have likely been violated. The collection of those bills violates federal law and you have a right to sue, to be paid damages, have the collection company pay all your legal fees, and to force the collector to rescind the collection activity.
If the collection company has negatively tagged your credit in an effort to compel you to pay this fraudulent surprise bill you may have a serious case that needs assistance from an experienced debt collection lawyer.
Contact us today to schedule a free consultation and learn how debt collection defense attorney Joshua Denbeaux can help you.
