[ahmedhawas123]

100% this. Non participating providers a big reason patients have gotten massive bills when going to an ER or an inpatient setting, esp. in rural settings, where a non-pariticipating provider is part of your care and you end up with 5/6 digit bills for that one provider. This actually protects the patient and creates an incentive for health systems to care about it.

[knollimar]

Well the article talks about a surprise billing law which already protected the patients, but why should insurance companies (and thus you through premiums) have to pick up the cost?

I want to be able to put pressure on hospitals to accept a whole set of insurance and I'm glad insurance companies are doing so.

There SHOULD be a guy saying "we should make sure his providers are all in network" at the hospital and not just make the insurance company write blank checks to anesthesiologists.

[ahmedhawas123]

Totally agree - this is what I'm saying also. Reality is hospitals still have an incentive (which we see them exercise a lot esp. in rural areas) to stay out of network where they can so that they can bill claim amounts freely.