Consumer Watchdog needs to hear from patients who who are insured–but have been forced to pay extra on their medical bills. Have you been billed by a doctor or hospital for more than your insurance company’s payment and your copays? Even been sent to collection for these extra bills? Click here to tell us your story. Or read on for more detalis.

Consumer Watchdog wants to stop patients from being billed extra, because patients should not be in the middle of what is really a dispute between medical providers and insurance companies. These extra medical bills often happen when you use a hospital or doctor for urgent or emergency care, and they’re not in  your  insurer’s "network." Or perhaps you went  to an in-network hospital, but a doctor or anesthesiologist who treated you turned out to be non-network. Such charges can come to hundreds or thousands of dollars, and ruin your credit rating.

So tell us about it. We’ll keep your information completely confidential unless you explicitly say otherwise. Please include your phone number if possible.

Here’s a news story from the Los Angeles Times about this practice of "balance billing" if you want the bigger story. Here’s another on the latest unsuccessful attempt in California to ban the practice.

Delaware and Florida make doctors and insurers work it out between themselves, while New Jersey and West Virginia require HMOs to pay physicians’ bills. In the rest of the country, you’re on your own. Consumer Watchdog wants to change that.