John Soumilas of Francis Mailman Soumilas. Courtesy photo
In November 2016, media outlets across the United States, including the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and the Washington Post, were abuzz with the findings from a new study by Yale University researchers published in the New England Journal of Medicine. According to the study, when a person with health insurance goes to the emergency room in a hospital covered by their insurance, 22% of the time they will receive bills for treatment by an out-of-network doctor.
The study, based on data from an unnamed insurance company, blamed the issue on private equity-owned hospital staffing companies. Only in August 2021 was it revealed that UnitedHealth was the source of the data. But the motives for the study are a story for a different day.
