Balance billing is the practice of a healthcare provider billing a patient for the difference between what the patient's health insurance chooses to reimburse and what the provider chooses to charge (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balance_billing). An example of this is when a patient with health insurance is taken to an in-network hospital and then has involuntary interactions with out-of-network doctors. Since the doctors are out-of-network, a health insurance provider will not pay as much and caps on out-of-pocket expenses, if any, are much higher, possibly leaving the patient with thousands of dollars in healthcare costs. This practice should be made illegal.



