To the Editor:
Imagine being told by your doctor that you need to be evaluated for a stroke at the Guthrie Cortland Medical Center emergency room. The hospital is in your insurance network. You pay the copay on the way out. A month or so later, you receive a bill for an enormous dollar amount from the neurologist that the ER doctor assigned to evaluate you because, surprise, the in-network emergency room uses a neurologist who is out of network.
Imagine a few years later, your college-aged son who has insurance through NYSDOH, comes home very ill. He can’t see his regular doctor so he goes to Cayuga Medical Center urgent care close by which is an in-network facility. A month or so later, you receive a bill for two lab tests performed on-site with results available on-site because the “lab” is considered out of network. You also receive an enormous bill from the doctor who was assigned to you by the in-network urgent care because the doctor also does not take your insurance.
How in the world of healthcare can a patient who goes to an emergency room or an urgent care center that is IN NETWORK then be denied benefits because the doctor and lab tests at the urgent care are out of network? How can a hospital or medical facility claim to be in network then provide a doctor and lab work that is out of network?
What has happened to our medical facilities? How can our state allow this? How are insurance companies getting away with this? Should a person going to the emergency room or urgent care be expected to vet every single test and ask every provider if they take their insurance? Something has to change!
Theresa Foster
Homer
