WASHINGTON, DC – Energy and Commerce Republican Leader Greg Walden (R-OR) told reporters last week that even with a busy fall calendar ahead, he is still hopeful that the bipartisan legislation aimed at stopping surprise medical billing will keep moving forward. Walden emphasized how he wants “to get it right” through continued discussion and how the foundation of the No Surprises Act should focus on protecting the consumer.
1 in 5 visits to the emergency room result in a surprise medical bill. Some of these bills can be as expensive as $50,000, or higher.
Below is a story in the Washington Examiner and a Bloomberg Editorial on surprise medical billing.
Walden says legislation to end surprise billing is possible
Washington Examiner
By Cassidy Morrison
https://washex.am/2mrQn2f
Oregon Rep. Greg Walden told reporters Friday that he is optimistic that his bipartisan legislation to stop surprise medical billing will move forward despite a busy congressional calendar this fall.
“We are making progress, there’s still discussions. I’ve talked to some of the senators who are involved and I think we’re going to find a path forward,” Walden said about legislation to end surprise billing Friday.
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“There’s obviously some pretty strongly held philosophical views about how to do this and we want to get it right,” Walden said. “I think the foundation is the consumer shouldn’t get whacked unfairly, if you follow the rules.”
Often, patients receive surprise bills for medical care that they didn’t know was not covered by their insurance. For example, it’s difficult in an emergency medical situation to ascertain with providers which services are covered and which would be paid for out of pocket.
The No Surprises Act would protect patients from paying more than the median cost of in-network emergency healthcare and would prohibit providers from charging a patient for the care that their insurers will not cover.
Click here to read the full article.
Congress Can Act Now to Stop Surprise Medical Bills
Bloomberg
Editorial Board
https://bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2019-10-01/congress-can-act-now-to-stop-surprise-medical-bills
While most of Washington was on vacation in August, lobbyists for doctors were busy placing ads attacking the recent effort in Congress to end “surprise medical bills” — the practice of slapping unsuspecting patients with huge out-of-pocket charges they couldn’t see coming…
Many health-care questions are complicated and controversial, and reasonable people can disagree on what’s best. This isn’t one of those questions. Many emergency-room doctors deliberately stay out-of-network so they can charge sky-high prices. Patients get whacked after the fact, discovering that even though their hospital was in-network, their treatment wasn’t. In 2017, the practice is estimated to have affected charges for 18 percent of emergency visits covered by large-employer insurance plans. And it isn’t confined to emergency-room visits. Sometimes in-network hospitals use out-of-network doctors for non-emergency treatments and pass on the higher costs to their unsuspecting patients. It’s indefensible and should be stopped.
Some states have taken steps to rein in the abuse, but Congress needs to act immediately to protect the 61 percent of privately insured workers whose employers operate their health plans directly and aren’t covered by state regulations. A good approach, set forth in both House and Senate versions of proposed legislation, is to link the cost of medical services in emergencies or at in-network facilities to a benchmark, regardless of whether the doctor concerned is in- or out-of-network. Exactly what the benchmark should be and which disputes, if any, should be settled via arbitration are points on which the different versions will need to be reconciled, but the basic idea is correct: Patients should be shielded from being ambushed by enormous charges.
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Click here to read more.