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
WSJ & STAT: Private-Equity Firms Continue to Exert Power in the Health Care System
The protections for American patients and families recently implemented through the No Surprises Act will be more important than ever going forward, particularly as private-equity firms and out-of-network providers try to undo essential patient safeguards to shield their own profits by fighting the protections in the courts.
Physicians, air ambulance companies, and others file 6 lawsuits to weaken surprise billing protections
A recent blog post in Health Affairs details the current state of play regarding six provider-driven lawsuits over the No Surprises Act. These lawsuits aim to weaken or even halt new protections that safeguard patients from unreasonable out-of-network charges. Just...
Guest Blog: Surprise Medical Billing Protections You Can Use Now
With the No Surprises Act protections fully in effect, consumers and employees will benefit from a range of new safeguards against these unexpected charges and costs. Patricia Kelmar, Director at Health Care Campaigns at U.S. PIRG highlighted a number of these...