Editorial: Freestanding ER bill to protect patients

Published 8:56 am Tuesday, February 26, 2019

 

The key word: “unconscionable.”

That’s what’s in House Bill No. 1941 this session, which pertains to prices charged to patients by some — not all — freestanding emergency rooms in Texas.

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The bill is of special concern in Texas because the state is home to more than 200 freestanding ERs, the most in any state.

While many of the facilities provide service, the cost can be dear — far more so than average patients might expect.

State Rep. Dade Phelan, R-Beaumont, has filed a bill to protect Texans from price gouging at free-standing emergency rooms.

“Some are good actors and some are bad actors,” Phelan said Friday of the free-standing ERs, suggesting that many providers within the industry agree with his legislation. So do constituents, he said, who’ve complained to his office.

“People go in for strep throat and get charged emergency room rates,” Phelan said.

“You go to one place and they charge you $400 for a cut finger, so why is it $4,000 at the next place?”

That’s the big question. AARP did a “secret shopper” survey of 213 freestanding ERs and found that less than half would answer “yes or no” questions about health plan coverage over the phone. On their websites, some 77 percent said they’d take or accept insurance when they were actually out of network for any major plan.

Here’s what that means: You seek health care at the facility, which says they’ll file for the claim. When they inform you the insurance company won’t pay, you’re stuck holding the bill.

“We hear (consumers) are told ‘We take your insurance, we take your insurance’ and you find that they don’t,” Phelan said. “Bait and switch,” he called such tactics.

And, oh, those bills: Phelan said constituents have told him horror stories of being charged up to thousands of dollars for routine care.

“Unconscionable,” indeed.

Phelan’s office said freestanding ERs are responsible for 80 percent of out-of-network ER services in Texas.

“They also lead to more than $3 billion a year in unnecessary emergency room health care costs by charging about 20 times more for the same service as a patient would pay in a doctor’s office or urgent care center,” Phelan’s staff said in an issued statement. It’s past time for action.

Lawmakers thought they’d addressed this issue in 2017, but the bill proved unworkable for the Attorney General’s consumer protection staff. So we’re back again.

Phelan authored HB 1941, which he said should receive bipartisan support. He also said state law will impose big penalties for freestanding ERs that cheat senior citizens. Sens. Kirk Watson, D-Austin, and Nathan Johnson, D-Dallas, have filed companion legislation, Senate Bill 866.

We applaud this bill and expect lawmakers to make it stick.