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
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- 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.
- 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 expect 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 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.
Latest News
Solving Surprise Medical Billing Through Market-Based Rates Gets Bipartisan Love
New recommendations from the Bipartisan Policy Center zero in on surprise medical bills and the need to tackle these unfair charges as part of a system-wide approach to addressing unsustainable health costs. The bipartisan group of health care experts -- led by former...
By Addressing Surprise Billing, Congress Can Protect Patients & Reverse Looming Debt Crisis
Yesterday’s reality check from the Congressional Budget Office about the country’s unsustainable debt crisis calls for Congress to take urgent action on health care costs. At a time when out-of-network providers and private equity firms are intentionally exploiting...
Why Private Equity Firms & Out-of-Network Providers Want to Stop Surprise Billing Reforms
At a time when thousands of American patients are facing hospital bill collectors at their door or the shock of an unexpected charge heading into surgery, those who benefit from these bankrupting charges – private equity firms, out-of-network providers and hospitals –...
Take Action
Tell Washington it’s time to protect patients from surprise and unfair medical bills.