Medical billing practices

Your story about this unfair patient billing practice is good news. (Hospitals protest new rules on billing, Oct. 15). This happened to me -- not once, but twice -- during two visits to Foothill Presbyterian Hospital in my community of Glendora. Each time, I wrote letters to my insurance company, Blue Cross of California, protesting the fact that I had to pay a hefty fee to the emergency room physician. And, I have Blue Cross’ Prudent Buyer PPO plan, not an HMO plan, for which I pay almost $1,000 per month in premium fees for myself, my husband and our son. This practice never made sense to me. When you visit an emergency room, it is an emergency, and patients should not be forced to walk around and ask which emergency doc takes their medical insurance. Hooray for California for cracking down on this.

Kristina Hajjar

Glendora