To mark 100 days since the No Surprise Act took effect, almost 70 organizations urged the tri-agencies to stand firm in their support of essential patient safeguards as several lawsuits threaten to weaken the regulations of the law.
The No Surprises Act instituted landmark new protections to address the problem of surprise out-of-network medical bills. The law puts patients ahead of profits by ensuring that every American can receive the health care they deserve without the fear they might receive a surprise medical bill.
Signatories of the letter called for the continued implementation of the law in-full to ensure Americans can access these important new protections. Highlights from the stakeholder letter include:
- “One hundred days ago, the No Surprises Act took effect, ushering in long-awaited, necessary patient protections to ensure that a hospital visit or emergency department treatment never again results in a surprise medical bill. Today, numerous lawsuits and challenges to both the Act itself and the rules from your Departments threaten to end those crucial patient protections or weaken the reforms of the law that aim to reduce health care inflation.”
- “The [Texas Medical Association] decision endangers the implementation of the No Surprises Act, a landmark law that was carefully designed to protect patients from the financial burden of out-of-network surprise medical bills while also lowering health care costs.”
- “Without the guardrails necessary to make independent dispute resolution (IDR) predictable, hospital-based providers will have a green light to use IDR routinely, rather than joining health plan networks. Without the guardrails in the interim final rules, some providers will continue to exploit the market failure and inflate costs for all insured consumers.”
- “The end result of an unpredictable IDR process like the Texas Medical Association prefers is simple: more inflation. This is because the cost of extensive IDR, as well as the ability of providers to continue to demand inflated rates to join networks, will put upward pressure on health care premiums. Americans simply cannot afford even a dollar of unnecessary inflation in health care costs.”
- “We strongly encourage you to defend and implement the No Surprises Act in a way that protects patients from exploitation, reduces health care costs, and adheres to the intent of the law as it was written. The principles and overall approach taken by the Departments throughout the two interim final rules should continue to guide the rulemaking process toward a prudent solution that addresses the underlying market failure and prioritizes consumers over private equity.”
To read the entire letter, click here.
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