Stop Surprise Medical Bills
Despite the success of the No Surprises Act, certain private equity-backed providers and arbitration middlemen are systematically manipulating the law’s arbitration process—known as independent dispute resolution (IDR)—to extract maximum payments from employers and patients. This ongoing misuse and abuse of the process—continued surges in arbitration filings, sky-high final payments that overwhelmingly favor providers, and growing use of third-party IDR firms—is raising alarms about the consequences for consumer premiums and health care affordability.
Our Mission
Members of the Coalition Against Surprise Medical Billing, which represent accountable care providers, leading employer groups, and health insurance providers and the tens of millions of people they employ and serve each day, support meaningful solutions to end surprise medical billing that would:
-
- Protect patients and families from surprise medical bills sent by out-of-network providers;
- Maintain fair and equitable payments for providers with a benchmark standard based on local, competitive market-based rates; and
- Help reduce consumers’ health insurance premiums and taxpayers’ costs by avoiding an arbitration process that adds unnecessary cost, delay, and bureaucracy to the health system, and is particularly harmful for smaller companies.
The Problem
Surprise medical billing—also known as “balance billing”—made it harder for patients to afford necessary medical care, often when they least expected it. Now, with patient protections in place, certain private equity-backed providers and profit-enhancing middlemen are using the arbitration process as a business model to extract profits. This aggressive, profit-driven use of the arbitration process not only inflates costs, but it also undermines the intended goals of the No Surprises Act: to make care more affordable and accessible for patients.
Role of Private Equity
The growing presence of private equity-backed providers is becoming an all too common influence in the health system—and one of the leading drivers behind egregious surprise medical bills that bankrupt families across the country. Out-of-network providers backed by private equity firms continue to exploit a market loophole that allow them to charge exorbitant rates at patients’ expense. Click Learn More below to view the Coalition’s latest advertising on the harmful tactics from private equity firms and why this practice needs to stop for good.
The Solution
Everyone in America deserves affordable, high-quality health coverage and care. Surprise medical bills undermine that promise, threatening the health and financial stability of millions of patients each year. Together, we must ensure patients are protected from excessive costs and empowered to make informed choices.
News
Why the NSA Enforcement Act Would Make a $5 Billion Cost Problem Worse
Bill would drive more IDR waste, fraud, and abuse harming consumers and employers The No Surprises Act is already protecting millions of Americans from surprise medical bills. While the core patient protections of the law are not at issue, a handful of private...
A Bill About IDR That Ignores Everything About IDR
At a time when the harm of Independent Dispute Resolution (IDR) abuse and misuse to consumers and employers is abundantly clear, the No Surprises Act Enforcement Act (H.R. 4710/S. 2420) ignores every problem with arbitration that policymakers should address. Congress...
New CASMB Ad Campaign Warns No Surprises Act Enforcement Act Rewards the Abuse It Claims to Fix
Washington, D.C. — With employers and consumers already bearing the exorbitant cost of Independent Dispute Resolution (IDR) abuse, the Coalition Against Surprise Medical Billing (CASMB) today launched a six-figure ad campaign to urge policymakers to oppose H.R. 4710,...
Take Action
Tell Washington it’s time to protect patients from surprise and unfair medical bills.