Hospitals And Emergency Rooms Using Contract Labor... Including Surgeons

This is a cautionary tale for those of us who have insurance plans that cover the charges of in-network practices. Just because you go to an in-network facility, you are not necessarily being worked on by a physician who works for that in-network place, so you could be stuck without coverage for those services.

I went into the ER in early February because of kidney stones. So far I have received 3 invoices:
-An invoice via email from the hospital itself
-An invoice via mail from the company that runs the Radiology Dept in the hospital
-An invoice via text from the company (US Acute Care) that employs the ER doctors in the hospital

I had no idea which bill was legit, especially the one via text from a company I've never heard of. I went on the hospital billing site and sent in message (there was no phone number.) I inquired about all 3 bills, but specifically wanted to know about the text invoice. I got back a generic reply that "We employ a variety of contract labor."

So after some research I verified that the invoices were legit and I paid them. I did go online and set up an account with the company that sent the text invoice...I don't process payments via my cell phone, especially without any invoice. My research led to an article about this practice of hospitals providing the facilities that 3rd party doctors and surgeons work out of with the appearance that they are hospital employees, much as I encountered.

People are picking hospitals that are in-network and are having work done by [apparent] staff doctors and surgeons, only to discover later that the doctors are not employees of the in-network hospital, and that their fees are not covered by insurance. The situation is made worse when there is crisis care being provided and providers are legally prohibited from discussing costs. That notwithstanding, people in non-emergency situations are not being made aware that they are dealing with an out-of-network provider who occupies space in their in-network facility. That provider has all the appearance of being a hospital employee.

What's worse is that the 3rd party providers' agreements with the hospitals prevent them from discussing the arrangement with the patient. So you get the 3rd party doctor, the hospital, and the insurance companies pointing the finger at each other, calling everyone else "greedy," and the patient is stuck with the bill. In the case of the article I read, the patient's bill was for the $17,000 balance of a $19,000 surgery done by a doctor wandering the halls of an in-network facility.

I had no idea this garbage was going on. Here's the link to a 6 year old article.