Emergency Consent
57% of Americans have reported receiving a surprise medical bill. How can we fight back?
Quizzify's offering an elegant solution to fight surprise medical bills.
Print these out, cut them up and put them any place you think you might need them in an emergency - wallet, glove compartment etc.
The Problem
Hospital emergency rooms (ERs) are required to treat anyone who comes in the door.
Before they do, ERs will typically make your employees sign a whole contract, electronically, which your employees will likely treat as though it were a “terms and conditions” document that doesn’t even have to be read…when in fact they are actually agreeing to be responsible for total charges.
Quizzify's Solution
Employees can insist on seeing a printed copy of the consent, and then write in their own language as follows:
Superseding form consents, I consent to responsibility (including insurance) for up to 2 times Medicare following receipt of an itemized bill for appropriate treatment.
They still have to treat you and even admit you, even if you don't agree to their consent. Otherwise, under the No Surprises Act, if you sign their form and dispute the bill, you can be sent to binding arbitration, where your bill will be much higher than 2x Medicare.
However, in the heat of the moment, employees have to first of all remember to do that. And if they do remember to ask for the printout and cross out the offending language, they also need to push back when the ER intake person says: "You can't do that," or something similar. All while your employee or a family member might be bleeding. Not a good time to get into a debate.
Take Action
Employers can help. Clicking on the button below will reveal a pdf of eight identical consents. These can be printed and separated. Give each employee a number of them to keep where they may be needed in an emergency – wallet, glove compartment, bike bag etc.
Or just add this language to employee insurance cards. That way even if they are incapacitated, the consent could hold.
(No guarantees on that one, though...)
*Legally, we can’t guarantee this will work. But we know the alternative—signing whatever they put in front of you—carries the risk of much higher bills, and more chance of inappropriate treatment.