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
Ever Hear of an Out-of-Network Chef?
A major new advertising campaign from the Coalition Against Surprise Medical Billing highlights the unfair and unreasonable practice of surprise medical billing. American patients and families can’t afford these out-of-control bills from out-of-network providers – and they shouldn’t have to. The Coalition’s campaign underscores the urgency for federal legislation to put an end to this disturbing trend – which wouldn’t be tolerated in any other setting.
Patients in Recovery Deserve Relief, Not a $100,000 Surprise Medical Bill
After a successful spinal surgery, Liv experienced almost instant relief… until a surprise medical bill for $93,991.58 arrived in her mailbox. The cause of the exorbitant bill? A neuromonitoring service provided during the spinal surgery. The service was an important part of her overall surgery, meant to detect potential damage to her nerves during the procedure. The catch was that the monitoring was charged as a separate service from the spinal surgery, because it was provided by a company that was out-of-network with her health insurance provider – even though her surgeon was in-network. How is this fair?
Coalition Statement on Senate HELP Proposal to Protect Patients from Excessive Surprise Billing Charges
Following the release of the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor & Pensions (HELP) bipartisan legislative package to end surprise billing, the Coalition Against Surprise Medical Billing issued the following statement
Take Action
Tell Washington it’s time to protect patients from surprise and unfair medical bills.