Terrible abdominal pain, while at a Florida conference, landed Doug Moore in an out of town emergency room (ER). While the emergency room charges were paid by his insurance as in-network charges, the doctors’ charges were billed at a much higher out-of-network rate.

Questions:
1. On average, what percentage of patients that go to ERs face this similar financial shock?
2. What states have already passed legislation to deal with this problem?
3. What is balance billing?
4. How did Mr. Moore finally resolve the payment issue? What would you do if faced with a similar situation?

Source:
Sanger-Katz, M. and R. Ableson. (2016). Surprise! Insurance Paid the E.R. but Not the Doctor. The New York Times, Nov. 16 (Retrievable online at http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/17/upshot/first-comes-the-emergency-then-comes-the-surprise-out-of-network-bill.html).