Kaiser Health News recently reported that four New York urgent care centers have agreed to improve their disclosure of insurance and pricing information after State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman initiated an inquiry in July. The AG's inquiry, based on the state's new "Surprise Bill" law that was previously discussed here, suggested that about 20 centers were posting potentially misleading information on their websites about their participation in insurers' networks.
According to Kaiser, the AG's letters expressed concern that statements on the centers' websites "may lead consumers to believe that an out-of-network urgent care center is ... 'in network' with their health plan." This could potentially result in a "surprise bill" to an unknowing patient who visits an urgent care center believing that it is in his insurer's network but then receives a bill for a higher out-of-network charge. The four centers agreed to clearly list the health plans with which they contract as in-network providers and to stop using the terms "works with" or "accepts."
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