Every Texan supports CSHB 4115 by Representative Oliverson, which extends Texas’ surprise medical billing protections to ground ambulances.
Texans have benefited for more than a year from the landmark surprise billing protections passed last session (SB 1264). Initial reports on the rollout of the law shows that is has achieved its central aim of protecting consumers by stopping surprise medical bills from many out-of-network services.
Unfortunately both SB 1264 and the No Surprises Act passed by Congress at the end of 2020 do not address surprise medical bills from ground ambulances. Patient get no choice about which ambulance transports them and cannot “shop around” to find an in-network option.
In Texas, 85% of ground ambulance services are billed out-of-network, leaving consumers at risk of sizable surprise medical bills. CSHB 4115 addresses this problem in a way to both protects consumers from surprise medical bills and doesn’t inflate health care costs. It also implements one of TDI’s recommendations from its biennial report.
Read our full testimony here.