What is the significance of surprise medical bills in each type of insurance model? - Answers In public
insurance (medicare/medicaid), surprise medical bills are not an issue here because medicare and
medicaid have already negotiated with doctors across the board.
In private insurance, surprise medical bills show up here. Employer negotiates with insurance company
to determine how much the insurance company will contribute, how much you will contribute out of
paycheck
What are the three types of private insurance models? - Answers HMO - If you go to out of network
doctor, you have to pay whatever doctor charges you → no out of network care paid for by an insurance
company
PPO - If you go to out of network doctor, you will pay a lesser rate than what you have to pay without
insurance, but you have to pay more than what you would if you went to in network doctor
Full Indemnity - You pay a premium (more than HMO and PPO premium), but you can see whoever you
want
What are some research questions associated with surprise medical bills? - Answers Positive: What is
true, what is factual
Is this rare or frequent? Unique to a situation?
Does it happen differently in different health care settings?
Does it happen differently in different locations?
Normative - what is the norm? What should be the norm
Why is it happening?
What can we do about it as consumers and policy makers?
Defining a Surprise Out of Network Bill - Answers To define a surprise medical bill within a quantitative
research question - EMPIRICALLY CHALLENGING.
Inference and data allows us to determine if a bill is a surprise medical bill.
What type of data do researchers look at to determine surprise out of network bill? - Answers Analyze
the data such as Date, time, Hospital Bill
Type of procedure, the cost of the procedure, code, the insurance company (what they have
contributed, and what expected contribution will be)
So bill will have total cost, cost insurer will pay, cost you have to pay