hospital billing

Pregnant patients are being asked to make large payments months before they deliver, a change from decades of standard practice. Advocates worry that it allows providers to hold "treatment hostage."

Billing experts and lawmakers are playing catch-up as providers get around new consumer protections, leaving patients like Danielle Laskey of Washington state with big bills for emergency care.

To realign the man's jaw and ease his chronic pain and high blood pressure, he would need two operations, the surgeon said. Both procedures went well, but the patient was shocked by the second bill.