If you are among the 1 in 5 hospital patients who’ve been slammed with a surprise out-of-network medical bill, the old African proverb applies: When elephants fight, it is the grass that suffers.
The elephants in this case are the physician staffing firms, the hospitals that hire them, and the insurers that refuse to pay their usurious rates. Congress, in a rare display of bipartisanship, is considering legislation that would rein in a system that benefits everyone but patients.