Two national studies find pathologists bill out-of-network more frequently than other hospital-based specialties, and one study links that behavior to insurer reimbursement rates
Surprise bills for out-of-network services continue to be an important issue for healthcare consumers. Now comes a recently-released report from the Health Care Cost Institute (HCCI) claiming that pathologists are the specialists that most often bill for out-of-network hospital charges.
The HCCI study examined the prevalence and frequency of out-of-network billing among six specialties. The sample used for the report included 13.8 million healthcare visits to over 35 thousand hospital-based healthcare providers that occurred in 2017. The types of visits examined for the report were:
- emergency medicine,
- pathology,
- radiology,
- anesthesiology,
- behavioral health, and
- cardiovascular services.
The researchers calculated the percentage of out-of-network claims for both inpatient and outpatient visits to each type of the six specialties.
The study found that, overall, less than half of the specialties billed out-of-network for services obtained at in-network facilities. Providers with at least one out-of-network claim associated with an in-network outpatient visit ranged from 15% for behavioral health to 49% for emergency medicine.
Pathologists’ Out-of-Network Billing
Among the pathologists surveyed, HCCI found 33% had at least one out-of-network claim for an in-network outpatient visit. Providers with at least one out-of-network claim associated with an in-network inpatient visit ranged from 18% for cardiovascular services to 44% for both emergency and pathology services.
HCCI researchers also examined how often individual providers in the six specialties billed out-of-network at least one time and found that the majority billed out of network less than 10% of the time. However, this varied among the specialties with 36% of pathologists who billed out-of-network for inpatient visits, and 20% of pathologists who billed out-of-network for outpatient visits, did so more than 90% of the time.
Pathologists Top List of Out-of-Network Specialists in Previous HCCI report
Last November, HCCI released a similar report that examined the commonality of out-of-network billing for the same six specialties plus surgical services that took place in 2017. Based on their collected data, they also estimated the amount of surprise bills that patients could expect to receive for those services.
That report found that nationally:
- 16.5% of visits with emergency room services had an out-of-network claim from an emergency medicine specialist.
- 12.9% of visits with lab/pathology services had an out-of-network claim from a pathologist.
- 8.3% of visits with anesthesiology services had an out-of-network claim from an anesthesiologist.
- 6.7% of visits with behavioral health services had an out-of-network claim from a behavioral health provider.
- 4.2% of visits with radiology services had an out-of-network claim from a radiologist.
- 2.1% of visits with surgical services had an out-of-network claim from a surgeon.
- 2.0% of visits with cardiovascular services had an out-of-network claim from a cardiovascular specialist.
Surgical Services the Most Expensive Out-of-Network Bill
This study also found broad variation in charges between types of services and healthcare settings. The researchers determined that the potential surprise bills for surgical visits due to out-of-network claims were of the greatest magnitude. HCCI estimated that the average potential surprise bill associated with an inpatient surgery was $22,248, while the potential surprise bill associated with an outpatient surgery was $8,493.
Out-of-Network Surprise Billing Varies Widely Depending on Location
The data was further broken down by state. For pathology services, the percentage of visits with out-of-network services in 2017 ranged from 0.3% in Minnesota to 75.3% in Kansas. HCCI researchers estimated the potential surprise bill for out-of-network pathology claims for inpatient services ranged from $14 in Louisiana to $167 in Delaware. The estimated surprise bill for out-of-network outpatient pathology services ranged from $23 in Louisiana to $218 in Wyoming.
Pathologists Also Top Out-of-Network Biller in Yale University Study
A Yale University study into surprise billing released in December and published in the journal Health Affairs found similar results, Modern Healthcare reported. This study examined surprise out-of-network bills incurred by patients who sought care at in-network hospitals for four types of specialists that are not chosen by patients:
- pathologists,
- anesthesiologists,
- radiologists, and
- assistant surgeons.
For the Yale study, the researchers examined employer-sponsored insurance claims from a major commercial insurer for healthcare visits that occurred at in-network hospitals in 2015. They found that 12.3% of cases involving a pathologist were billed out-of-network, which was the highest percentage of the four specialties analyzed. By contrast, 11.8% of anesthesiologists, 11.3% of assistant surgeons, and 5.6% of radiologists billed out-of-network for their services.
The Yale study also found that “the ability of these four specialties to send patients out-of-network bills allowed them to negotiate high in-network payments from insurers, which leads to higher insurance premiums for individuals.”
The Yale study researchers determined that were these specialists unable to bill out-of-network, the particular healthcare plan would save 3.4% of their expenditures or about $40 billion per year, Modern Healthcare reported.
Surprise bills for out-of-network services burden both patients and providers. Insurers want beneficiaries to have access to hospitals and services, but providers in many specialties do not want to contract with those insurers due to low reimbursements.
This disconnect results in providers staying out-of-network and patients receiving surprise bills for out-of-network services even though the hospital was in-network. And pathologists are at the top of the list.
Anatomic pathologists across the country will want to track how government and private payers respond to these findings by amending coverage and reimbursement guidelines in ways that may be unfavorable to the pathology profession.
—JP Schlingman
Related Information:
Pathologists Most Frequent Surprise Billing Offenders, HCCI Finds
How Often Do Providers Bill Out of Network?
How Common is Out-of-Network Billing?
Out-of-Network Billing by Hospital-based Specialists Boosts Spending by $40 Billion
Study Exposes Surprise Billing by Hospital Physicians
Out-of-Network Billing and Negotiated Payments for Hospital-Based Physicians
