Congress Acts to Eliminate Surprise Medical Bills

Alice Green

6 years ago

Lawmakers in the House and Senate are working together on legislation Senator Lamar Alexander (R-TN) describes as a &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Christmas present” to America&period; Patients will be able to know the costs of medical care before it is administered&period; &NewLine;&NewLine;&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;I do not think it is possible to write a bill that has broader agreement than this one does among Senate and House Democrats and Republicans on Americans’ number one financial concern&colon; what they pay out of their own pockets for healthcare,” said Alexander&period; &NewLine;The Lower Health Care Costs Act introduces arbitration, a system for dispute resolution designed to protect patients when insurance companies disagree with providers&period; &NewLine;In cases where patients receive emergency out-of-network care, providers would be paid based on a benchmark rate that matches the average rate for in-network care in that region&period; Providers can appeal charges to an independent arbitrator only if those charges exceed &dollar;750 and would be prohibited from bundling charges&period; &NewLine;What this means for patients&colon; they won&&num;8217&semi;t pay any more money for out-of-network emergency care than they would for in-network care and they won&&num;8217&semi;t be subject to &&num;8220&semi;balance billing,&&num;8221&semi; when a patient is charged the full difference between what an insurer is willing to pay for an out-of-network provider and what that provider wants to charge&period;&NewLine;The deal, with support from the Trump Administration, could save the government nearly &dollar;20 million&period;&NewLine;The Lower Health Care Costs Act also includes five years of funding for community health centers, introduces a new measure to increase transparency and competition for prescription drugs, and addresses the vaping epidemic by increasing the minimum age to buy tobacco products to 21&period;&NewLine;Lawmakers hope to attach the bill to a spending package due December 20th&period;&NewLine;Author&&num;8217&semi;s Note&colon; This is a major step forward in getting Americans in charge of their own healthcare&period; And its bipartisan&period;&NewLine;&nbsp&semi;&NewLine;