Washington, D.C. – As Congress looks to advance a surprise medical billing solution, the Coalition Against Surprise Medical Billing launched a new advertising campaign and television ad – “Surprise” – highlighting the motivation behind private equity and hospitals’ push for a costly arbitration provision. This expanded advertising builds on the Coalition’s grassroots effort in the Beltway and in key states to elevate the voices of employees, employers, union members, consumers and patients who have been impacted by bankrupting surprise medical bills.
The Coalition represents leading employer groups, unions, health insurance providers, health organizations and the tens of millions of people they employ and serve each day. Its members support meaningful solutions to end surprise medical billing, including establishing fair, market-based rates for out-of-network care. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) found that local, market-based rates would save consumers and taxpayers more than $25 billion – the most savings of any legislative proposal being considered.
Private equity firms, hospitals and their allies’ suggested approach – government-mandated arbitration – would impose a massive new bureaucratic process that will add significant costs to patients and the health system. Their arbitration proposal comes at a time when leading private equity firms and hospitals are pushing more and more Americans into bankruptcy and taking legal action against patients who cannot pay these exorbitant charges.
In recent national polling, an overwhelming majority of voters favor a surprise billing fix that would reimburse providers with fair, market rates as opposed to legislation that would allow out-of-network providers to game the system via arbitration and increase costs for consumers and employees. The Coalition and its members have repeatedly urged Congressional leaders to avoid the use of open-ended arbitration and to focus on the market-based reforms that have a track record of success in expanding in-network care and lowering costs for consumers.
To view the ad, click here.
Recent Comments