The remedy for surprise medical bills may lie in stitching up federal law

This story is from Kaiser Health News When Drew Calver had a heart attack last year, his health plan paid nearly $56,000 for the 44-year-old’s four-day emergency hospital stay at St. David’s Medical Center in Austin, Texas, a hospital that was not in his insurance network. But the hospital charged Calver another $109,000. That sum — a so-called balance bill — was the difference between what the hospital and his insurer thought his care was worth. Though in-network hospitals must accept pre-contracted rates from health plans, out-of-network hospitals can try to bill as they like. Calver’s bill eventually was reduced to $332 after Kaiser Health News and NPR published a story about it last month. Yet his experience shines a light on an unintended consequence of a wide-ranging federal law, which potentially blindsides millions of consumers. The federal law — called ERISA, for the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 — regulates company and union health plans that are...