Thread by @TexasTribune

1/ One in three emergency room admissions in Texas results in a surprise medical bill.

Thousands of Texans asked for the state to help them in 2018.

It overwhelmed the consumer protection bureaucracy. bit.ly/2TIck8K

2/ Surprise medical bills, or balance billing, result when insurers and health care providers can’t agree on the price of a medical treatment.

bit.ly/2TIck8K

3/ There are plenty of examples — including an Austin school teacher who received a $109,000 surprise bill after suffering a heart attack.
bit.ly/2TIck8K

4/ The state’s mediation program was created in 2009, but many Texans didn’t qualify until reforms in 2015 and 2017.

Now more Texans are asking for help than ever. bit.ly/2TIck8K

5/ Texas received just 43 requests for mediation in 2013.

In 2014, the number surged to 600+.

The requests hit a record high of 4,519 in 2018.

8,000 are expected this year.

bit.ly/2TIck8K

6/ In 2018 alone, Texas received complaints about $8.8 million in qualifying surprise bills.

After just the informal telephone conference, insurers coughed up $1.6 million more for those cases.

bit.ly/2TIck8K

7/ But there's one glaring omission in the records tracked by the state: How much relief was passed on to the consumer? bit.ly/2TIck8K

8/8 “What we hear anecdotally is [that with] the additional payments, pretty much always, the bill goes away. That's what we hear over and over from the consumer: ‘I didn't get another bill.’” bit.ly/2TIck8K