Not sure if you got it all straightened out yet or not but I thought maybe this info will help. I have worked for health insurance companies for well over 10 years now from entry level to management. And I can tell you nothing annoys me more then a situation like this.

That being said, at every company that I worked for and dealt with, it has always been common practice to pay out of network bills associated wiht an in netwrok ER visit or in network hospital stay at the in network level as well. The problem comes in to play that when a bill is submitted, a "computer" just automatically processes the claim as it is. It doesnt do the common sense thinking that you or I would do and say well, the hospital was in network so let me pay all these other bills in network. All you should have really had to do was call the insurance company and explain it to them. In a rare case, they may say, well prove that it was an emergency over an elected type of service but none the less, you really shouldnt have a problem getting the insurance company to readjust the claims associated with that hospital.

Now I do want to add that I work mainly in self insured business so it really is up to each and every group unlike fully insured where the insurance company themselves make the decision. There was one client, a very large hospital, that actually refused to honor this type of situation. They basically said that if the ER doctor, lab etc was not in network, then it was to be paid out of network. No lever of appeal was going to make this client change their minds and for that, they had a lot of very unhappy employees. But I guess they had their reasons for doing this, I just still havent figured out what they are.

I hope I helped, like I said, I have been involved in health insurance for a long time and while things may seem common sense, nothing in insurance is ever balck and white, there are always exceptions etc to every rule and policy.

Good luck and if you have any specific questions, just ask.