A piece of legislation that would stop surprise medical bills is one step closer to becoming law.
The “Out of Network Health Insurance Coverage” bill was passed by the Florida Senate Banking and Insurance Committee on Tuesday.
The bill would regulate how insured patients are asked to pay for unexpected out-of-network care—like if a patient has a surgery at an in-network hospital but finds out afterwards that one of the anesthesiologists was out of network.
“I just want to make sure that we take the consumer out of the dispute resolution between the provider and the payer,” Sen. Rene Garcia, R-Hialeah, told the committee. “A consumer, a patient, is walking into a facility thinking that they’re going to be covered.”
A similar proposal failed last year when lawmakers couldn’t agree on who should pay for the out-of-network care in these cases.
The bill is expected to have its final committee hearing on the House side Wednesday morning.
