You do the right thing. So should doctors and insurers.

It’s sometimes not enough to have good health insurance, pay your monthly premiums, and understand your co-pays and deductibles. These days, even the savviest consumers are getting hit with surprise bills from out-of-network doctors and labs.

Why? In many cases, patients seek care at an in-network hospital, assuming it will be covered by their policy. Only later do they find out that some of the doctors they saw in that hospital, or some of the labs the hospital used for tests, were not in-network. The result can be huge, unexpected bills—even though the patient never chose to use those providers.

We’re talking directly to policymakers, pushing them to address this problem. But you can help fight surprise medical bills by adding your voice to the effort. Here’s how:

1. If you’ve been hit with a surprise medical bill, you can find out where to complain in your state using our Insurance Complaint Tool.
2. You can help us end surprise medical bills by sharing your story about getting a surprise medical bill. The CR members below did. You can share yours here.
3. You can ask your Congressional delegation to ban surprise medical bills. Legislation currently in Congress would close health-industry loopholes and make sure every patient is protected from surprise medical bills. But Wall Street-backed companies that buy and invest in doctor practices are fighting this legislation. They want to keep sticking patients with thousands in surprise medical bills for ‘out-of-network’ medical care because it means higher profits. To send an email to your Senators and Representative saying that you expect them to do the right thing and ban surprise medical bills, click here.