Dive Brief:
- The California Department of Managed Health Care is working to end the practice of balance billing for emergency care, which would make it the 45th state to ban in-network balance billing.
- As part of these efforts, the DMHC just got a court order against Jeanette Martello, MD, a plastic surgeon at hospitals and also a lawyer, who has allegedly been asking patients to sign forms promising to pay what the health plans did not pay.
- Martello, who practices at hospitals in Pasadena and Burbank, has allegedly been filing excessive charges then pursuing collections through legal actions. These alleged actions follow a cease and desist order against Martello, and coming a year after the California Supreme Court banned balance billing for emergency services.
Dive Insight:
California's DMHC seems to be getting very serious on this subject. Along with the injunction, Martello was fined $563,000 and sentenced to five days in jail. And it's little wonder that their efforts focused on Martello, who, if she took the actions alleged, would seem to be completely flaunting the law as it exists today in California.