Health Care Leaders Unite to Protect Patients Against Surprise Medical Bills
"Every American deserves affordable, high-quality coverage and care, as well as control over their own health care choices." That's according to nine organizations representing consumers, businesses, and health insurance providers that have joined forces to defend those rights.
These leading organizations have come together to advance core, guiding principles to protect patients from receiving surprise medical bills - often for tens of thousands of dollars - after getting the care they need. Organizations signing on to the principles include:
-
-
-
-
- The ERISA Industry Committee
-
-
-
-
These groups serve and cover hundreds of millions of Americans who rely on insurance coverage to meet their health care needs.
Health insurance providers develop networks to negotiate better value and lower costs for the consumers they serve. When doctors, hospitals, or care specialists choose not to participate in networks - or if they do not meet the standards for inclusion in a network - they charge whatever rates they like. The consequence is millions of consumers receiving surprise, unexpected medical bills that can often break the bank. According to a recent poll from
By signing onto these guiding principles, the organizations agree:
- Patients Should Be Protected from Surprise Medical Bills Through Federal Legislation. The organizations support federal legislative action to end surprise medical bills.
- Patients Should Be Informed When Care Is Out of Network. Patients have a right to know about the costs of their treatment and options.
- Federal Policy Should Protect Consumers from Surprise Medical Bills While Restraining Costs and Ensuring Quality Networks. Putting patients first means enacting policies that protect consumers from surprise bills, while ensuring that those policies do not simultaneously increase premiums or other costs for consumers.
- Payments to Out-of-Network Doctors Should be Based on a Federal Standard. More than 100 million Americans are enrolled in a self-funded health plan. Protecting them requires a federal standard that reduces complexity while ensuring they cannot be surprise-billed.
Click here to review the full set of guiding principles.
About AHIP America's Health Insurance Plans
(AHIP) is the national trade association representing the health insurance community. AHIP's members provide health and supplemental benefits to millions of Americans through employer-provided coverage, the individual insurance market, and public programs such as Medicare and Medicaid. AHIP advocates for solutions that expand access to affordable health care coverage to all Americans through a competitive marketplace that fosters choice, quality, and innovation. Visit www.ahip.org for more information.
About
The Council is a public policy organization whose members include over 220 of the world's largest corporations, as ranked by Fortune and Forbes. Collectively, the Council's members either directly sponsor or administer health and retirement benefits for virtually all Americans covered by employer-sponsored plans. The Council advocates for these employers, connecting public policy and private-sector solutions to shape employee benefits for the evolving global workforce.
About the
The
About
About The ERISA Industry Committee (ERIC)
The ERISA Industry Committee (ERIC) is the only national association that advocates exclusively for large employers on health, retirement, and compensation public policies at the state, federal, and local levels. Learn more at eric.org.
About
About the
About the
The
About the
The
Quotes from Cosigners
"Surprise medical bills undermine the health and financial stability of the patients and consumers we serve. By agreeing to these guiding principles, we are showing our commitment to protect hardworking American families from these unexpected costs. Together, we can make a real difference in improving health care affordability and access for everyone." -
"Employer-provided health coverage, enjoyed by more than 181 million Americans, gives working families financial security and peace of mind. The practice of 'surprise billing' undermines that security by striking plan participants when they are most vulnerable. These common-sense principles give families the protection they need from these unforeseen medical bills." -
"People have suffered too long from surprise out-of-network bills that they receive due to no fault of their own. Families across America deserve a national solution to this problem so that no matter where they live, they can trust that they will not face the burden of these unfair costs. To protect consumers, policy solutions to surprise bills must both prevent surprise bills and hold down costs overall. We appreciate the opportunity to work with
"Patients who are doing the right thing, going to in-network hospitals, often are surprised when doctors or hospitals send them large, unexpected bills. Companies that sponsor health plans for their employees believe that it is imperative that we protect patients from these bills, and that we do so by eliminating the bills - not forcing someone else to pay, rewarding providers who want to charge without regard to networks, contracts or patient care. Next year
"Surprise billing hurts patients and adds to the growing unaffordability of health care for many people. We need to work together to protect patients from extra bills when they go to a hospital covered by their health plan. These principles are a good start to help control health costs for all." -
Surprise bills are an unnecessary outrage presented to families at the worst of times. But the solution to surprise billing is not to shift the bills to employers or insurers. That will only increase costs for the families we cover, a fresh outrage no one can afford." -
When The White House Fights The Fed, The White House Wins — Always
BD Announces Completion Of Enterprise Level Cybersecurity Assessment From UL
Advisor News
Annuity News
Health/Employee Benefits News
Life Insurance News