Surprise Medical Billing

WASHINGTON, DC – Energy and Commerce Committee Republican Leader Greg Walden (R-OR), Chairman Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ), and Senate Health Education Labor and Pensions (HELP) Chairman Lamar Alexander (R-TN) and Ranking Member Patty Murray (D-WA) today expanded a bipartisan investigation into surprise billing practices of physician staffing companies and top insurers. In letters to Envision Healthcare, TeamHealth, Anthem, Cigna, CVS Health, Health Care Service Corporation, Highmark, and UnitedHealth Group, the bipartisan, bicameral leaders requested information and documents pertaining to the billing policies and practices of physician staffing companies and...

Excerpt: "Over the past year, the Committee has taken several bipartisan steps to hold patients harmless in situations where they, through no fault of their own, receive a surprise bill from an out-of-network health care provider," Walden, Pallone, Alexander, and Murray write in the letters. "We are concerned about the impact of surprise billing on the nation’s rising health care costs and the devastating effect that the practice is having on Americans. Therefore, we request your assistance to understand better why surprise billing occurs, the policies and practices that...