AEE11: COVID-19 Billing, With Doug Aldeen and Al Lewis

In this episode, Stacey Richter talks with Doug Aldeen, an attorney who helps employers settle hospital bills, and Al Lewis of Quizzify, about COVID-19 billing under the newly signed CARES Act.

WHAT YOU'LL LEARN

✅ What the CARES Act's No Cost Sharing for COVID-19 Testing and Vaccines provision actually requires

✅ Why hospitals and diagnostic testing companies can effectively name their price on COVID-19 tests

✅ Why waived cost sharing for COVID-19 treatment doesn't protect patients from bills for other conditions treated at the same time

✅ What happens when a patient is treated at a hospital outside their plan's network

✅ How the Quizzify wallet card can help protect patients and employers from COVID-19 surprise billing

WHY THIS MATTERS

Doug Aldeen breaks down the fine print in the CARES Act's COVID-19 testing provision: insurers must cover testing without cost sharing, but that requirement effectively lets hospitals and labs set their own prices, with employers and insurers on the hook to pay. He warns that waived cost sharing for COVID-19 treatment doesn't extend to unrelated conditions a patient might be treated for during the same hospital stay, nor does it resolve out-of-network exposure. Al Lewis closes with a preview of the Quizzify wallet card as a practical defense employers and employees can use against these surprise bills.

=== LINKS ===

🔗 Show Notes with all mentioned links: Episode Page

🔗 Healthcare Industry Acronyms and Terms

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00:00 Introduction

04:12 Hospital billing as it relates to COVID-19.

05:45 Who is "on the hook" for paying these COVID-19 bills.

08:17 "Reasonable payment" in the case of COVID-19.

08:45 Is COVID-19 different than every other billing situation?

10:12 What's going to come out of the out-of-network COVID-19 costs?

11:29 What employers should be doing right now.

12:50 The takeaway for everyone "bankrolling" COVID-19.

13:26 "This whole thing is tilting towards, 'Who's going to pay for all this stuff?'"

13:53 Connecting the dots with COVID-19 billing.

15:25 Using the Quizzify wallet card, and how this can help avoid COVID-19 surprise billing.

16:17 Download the wallet card at quizzify.com.