Zack Cooper’s Study on Out-of-Network Charges Featured on NPR

NPR’s On Point features Zack Cooper’s and Fiona Scott Morton’s new research in a report, “Surprise Medical Bills Generated by Out-of-Network Doctors at In-Network Hospitals.”

Cooper’s and Scott Morton’s recently published paper finds that OON charges are most significant among certain specialties, such as anesthesiologists, pathologists, radiologists and assistant surgeons, and are most common when they are carried out in for-profit hospitals and hospitals in areas with little competition. 

The paper “Out-of-Network Billing and Negiotiated Payments for Hospital-Based Physicians” was published in Health Affairs last month, and co-authored by Hao Nguyen and Nathan Shekita. 

“We still don’t have choice over who your anesthesiologist is or who the radiologist is reviewing some of your material. And it turns out the bills from those physicians can be pretty sizable,” says Zack Cooper.