Surprise medical bills back in crosshairs
The Trump administration is again taking up the issue and will possibly seek to include it in a coming stimulus package.
Many major health care reform issues have been tabled during the COVID-19 outbreak, but now, as the dust settles and legislators brace for a second wave, some issues are finding their way back into the discussion.
According to Politico, the Trump administration is again taking up the issue of surprise medical billing and will possibly seek to include it in a coming stimulus package. As part of the first round of stimulus funding, health care providers who received bailout funding were prohibited from sending surprise medical bills.
Related: No ‘surprise’ bills for COVID-19, White House says
While both Democrats and Republicans agree something must be done about surprise bills, finding a solution that benefits both patients and providers has been more difficult. At issue is how payment dispute issues would be solved. Unfortunately, the Trump administration’s latest plan, which would ban providers from holding patients responsible for outstanding charges, doesn’t offer a solution. In fact, according to Politico, the Congressional Budget Office has suggested that the current plan would result in higher provider rates and insurance premiums.
“As far as protecting COVID patients from being surprise-billed, we’re kind of thinking, if this is all that can happen, we want this issue taken care of,” one lobbyist told Politico. “But we have major concerns about impact on costs and patients if the entire issue isn’t addressed in a more comprehensive way.”
Other industry experts are more hopeful, seeing the plan as a win for patients and a huge step forward, regardless of the lawsuits that would inevitably occur over outstanding bills.
“I think increasingly courts are getting it right, and maybe that’s because surprise billing is now part of our lexicon,” Duke University law professor Barak Richman told Politico.
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