Ending Surprise Medical Bills
Millions of Americans have faced the financial burden of surprise medical bills. Thankfully, bipartisan enactment of the No Surprises Act prevented over 9 million surprise bills in the first 9 months of 2022. Despite this success, 16 lawsuits have been filed challenging the law, implementing regulations, and IDR decision process. These lawsuits, often driven by private-equity backed providers, threaten to restrict and even do away with the protections put in place by the No Surprises Act. Recent polling has shown that a bipartisan majority of voters are concerned these lawsuits could delay or overturn the patient protections in the No Surprises Act (73%) and increase health care costs for patients (78%).
Our Mission
The Coalition Against Surprise Medical Billing represents leading employer groups, unions, health insurance providers, and the tens of millions of people they employ and serve each day. Together, we support comprehensive protections for Americans against surprise medical bills, including:
■ Ensuring that as implementation continues, the No Surprises Act regulations remain in place to serve patients and end the practice of out-of-network providers sending surprise medical bills – while also lowering costs.
■ Maintaining fair and market-based payments for out-of-network care.
■ Reducing Americans’ health insurance premiums and taxpayers’ costs by avoiding an arbitration process that adds unnecessary cost, delay, and red tape to the health system.
The Problem
Surprise medical billing – also known as “balance billing” – made it harder for patients to afford necessary medical care, and even bankrupted families, often when they least expected it.
Role of Private Equity
The Solution
Everyone in America deserves affordable, high-quality coverage and care, and control over their health care choices. Surprise medical bills undermine these values, putting the health and financial stability of millions of patients at risk every year. As organizations representing America’s employers, unions and health insurance providers, we all have a role to play in ensuring that patients are informed, engaged, and protected from excessive costs.
News
ICYMI: Private Equity Cashes in on Routine Births
Harmful surprise billing practices exacerbated by private equity involvement in health care were recently highlighted by Fortune and Kaiser Health News. Patient Elizabeth Huffner was expecting and past her due date, so when she went into labor and headed to the...
ICYMI: A Tale of Two States – Surprise Billing Laws in California and New York Led to Dramatically Different Costs for Patients
A recent study published in Health Affairs compared policies in New York, where out-of-network bills have increased by 24% because existing state law allows the arbitration process to rely on billed charges (billing charges increased from assistant surgeons and...
ICYMI: Kaiser Health News Highlights the Downsides of Private Equity Investments in Health Care
A recent article from Kaiser Health News highlights how investments from private equity firms can destabilize the American health care system. In one example, a small hospital system in Missouri was struggling to stay open, and the backing of Noble Health, a private...