The Biden Administration is in the process of finalizing its rules to enforce the No Surprises Act, which was passed by Congress in late 2020. This landmark bipartisan law protects individuals and families from receiving out-of-network surprise medical bills and ensures that health care costs don’t rise as a result. However, recent legal challenges could put your rights at risk.
Particularly, these challenges attack the administration’s design of the process that will settle payments between providers and insurers and could lead to much higher health care costs for families. As the administration finalizes its rules, we want them to keep the surprise billing law strong for families.
Send President Biden a letter today that encourages the administration to defend and implement the No Surprises Act in a way that protects patients from exploitation and reduces health care costs for families.
Petition language:
Dear President Biden and Secretary Becerra,
Thank you for your ongoing work to protect patients from the predatory and burdensome practice of surprise medical billing. The No Surprises Act and related rulemaking will finally protect families like mine from most out-of-network, expensive surprise medical bills while keeping health care costs down and ensuring fair payment for health care services.
I am concerned and frustrated with the impact of the recent legal challenges to the rules that weaken the law’s ability to protect consumers and help contain health care costs. Particularly, these challenges attack the administration’s design of the independent dispute resolution (IDR) process that will settle payments between providers and insurers. We appreciate that the administration based the IDR process on local, in-network rates. This market-driven approach to reimbursement negotiations will ensure fair payment to providers, while helping to reduce overall health care costs for patients. Removing guardrails from the IDR process increases the risk that providers will use IDR to obtain higher, inflated rates, leading to higher health care costs and higher premiums for families across the nation.
I hope that you will finalize the rule with the Independent Dispute Resolution (IDR) requirements as currently proposed. Any efforts to chip away at No Surprises Act protections is a clear sign that profits matter more than families’ peace of mind and financial well-being.
I am proud to stand with you, President Biden and Secretary Becerra, as you prepare to release the final rules in May. Thank you for your attention to this important issue.
Thank you,
Best,
[Insert your name]
This fall, Congress is considering bipartisan solutions to improve health care price transparency and protect families from being charged more for the same service. Explore the latest resources from our campaign and learn more about federal proposals on our resources page.
Questions? Have a Story to Share? Contact us at SameServiceSamePrice@familiesusa.org
