New data from the Health Care Cost Institute tries to pin down just how often patients end up with the most common form of a surprise hospital bill — the kind that arises when patients go to a hospital that's in their insurance network, but are seen by a doctor who's out-of-network.
By the numbers: Nationwide, about 14% of in-network hospital admissions included a bill for out-of-network care, per HCCI.
Details: There's wide variation in the prevalence of surprise billing from state to state. Florida patients have it worst — 26% of hospital admissions in the state ended with an out-of-network bill. Minnesota has the lowest rate of surprise billing, at less than 2%.
Anesthesiologists sent more of these bills than any other specialty, followed by primary care and emergency medicine.
