From the Pennsylvania Health Access Network (http://www.pahealthaccess.org):
Good news! A bill has been proposed in Harrisburg that would protect Pennsylvanians against surprise medical bills in Pennsylvania. If passed, HB 1862, the Surprise Balance Billing Protection Act, would be one of the strongest protections in the nation against these unfair bills!
This is great news, but we need your help to get it over the finish line! Can you call or email your Representative in Harrisburg NOW to ask them to support the bill?
Send your Representative an e-mail at https://pahealth.salsalabs.org/surprisemedicalbills/index.html.
Find your Representative to place a call at http://www.legis.state.pa.us/cfdocs/legis/home/findyourlegislator/index.cfm#address:
Not sure what a surprise medical bill is? Check out our graphic below for an explanation:
Here’s a suggested script if you call your Rep.:
“Hello, my name is ____ and I’m a constituent of Representative _____’s. I’m calling to encourage Representative _____ to support HB 1862, the bill that would protect Pennsylvanians from surprise medical bills.
Surprise medical billing is a practice that occurs when patients are billed for the balance of the cost of care that wasn’t covered by their insurance. Most of the time, patients are not aware that they received care that wasn’t covered by their insurance policy.
This is alarmingly common. A recent study showed that 1 in 3 Pennsylvanians has received a surprise medical bill over the past year, and most of them don’t know where to turn to get help. This can make people hesitant to get the care they need, or financially devastate them if they receive an expensive and unexpected bill.
Pennsylvania law does not currently protect patients from getting hit with these bills when they receive care from an out-of-network provider. As a constituent, I’m urging Representative _____ to vote “Yes” on HB 1862.”
Thanks for taking action!
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