A coalition of 67 health care industry and advocacy groups is urging Congress to revisit a surprise medical billing law to address an unforeseen problem from its enactment: the ballooning costs of settling disputes when services are performed out of network.
The industry groups sent a letter to congressional leadership on Thursday pushing for changes to the so-called No Surprises Act, enacted in 2020, which successfully shielded patients from out-of-network bills in most scenarios. But advocates say it created a problem over how disputes between a hospital, for example, and an insurance company are settled via the law’s “baseball-style” arbitration when there is no pre-negotiated contract between the two.
