Were getting this going after votes. The house subcommittee will come to order. Brief Opening Statements and then two panels. Welcome all of you for coming. This is the Third Session of congress in which i have introduced legislation to ban the practice of surprise billing. Todays bipartisan hearing represents an initial effort by this committee to finally offer some relief to patients whove been bearing the brunt of a dispute between their insurers and some of their Health Care Providers. For patients, you can take all the right steps in attempting to see that your care network is covered but you may still face big bills. One in seven americans have received a surprise bill as part of receiving care at a hospital that is actually within their Insurance Network. The problem in san antonio, one of the communities that i represent, has been so extensive that jay avola has initiated an entire Television Series called show me your bill. And i think a quick video clip from that adequately d
Finance committee will come to order today across Insurance Companies are excelling Mental Health coverage to our people worried about their Mental Health or that their loved ones. Unfortunately too often after these insurers take big premiums from our people. They let them down. The providers they advertise arent available. They can get appointments. The firm basically says we arent taking new patients which of course we not represented to theminitially in that way. The fact is these americans are being off e by what the government accounting process as described as a goat network. Not my language, the of accountability. The, was a Ghost Network is all about is essentially selling Health Coverage under false pretenses. Because the providers who can advertise avarent picking up the phone. They arent seeing patients in business product or service doesnt meet expectations consumers get a refund. In my view is a breach of contract for Insurance Companies to sell their plans for thousands
And i caught the slightest glimpse which ended soon thereafter. And then finally they said you can go but i asked if i could take a picture. That was far away. Kim and i take a picture . They said no. I said why . Because the other agent from behind said it is National Security zone was not allowed to take that picture. When we moved away he immediately called and made a complaint. He took the agents name and he called the station to make a complaint. I felt like i got a glimpse of what people are talking about if they talk about all kinds of things that lots of people say that we live in the occupied territory. Talking about being tailgated in the Homeland Security or border virtual vehicles from the back of their cars and people talk about coming onto their property without a warrant and home invasions i interviewed a man who was pulled out of the vehicle and hit with a baton. There is more stories like that. At one town hall meeting recently with the aclu looking into abuses they as
Thi this. Ice forgot about the plan or is not using the plan. It closed its Family Detention Center in texas a couple of years before this got out of hand. What i. C. E. Ended up doing was releasing some of the family members, some of them getting parole status. They have released information on where the unaccompanied juveniles have been resettled so far which i put in the packet. Total of 37,000 of them theyve provided details on with the majority going to a handful of states which are a little bit different than the unusual patterns of illegal settlement here. Over 5,000 in texas. 4,000 in new york. 4,000 in california. Almost the same number in florida as in california. And also significant populations of almost 3,000 in virginia and maryland. What theyre doing is people are going to places where there are already existing established communities of Central Americans who arrived before them. The numbers, im sure, are going to increase next year. And the reason is no one is being se
Cycle 3 Grant Funding for a more indepth of co pays and deductibles and also analyze pricing data in coordination with premium and rate filing information. David, could i just ask you to clarify the difference between the rate information and the pricing information . Right. Thats a great question. So the rate information is the information that the carrier files to justify the underlying to justify the ultimate premium thats charged in the market. So if you pay, just making up numbers. If you pay 500 a month in premium, thats what the issuer charges you, the rate filing supports all the data of how they get to that price. So in terms of the interplay between the departments of insurance and the state and federal marketplaces, the departments of insurance are solely responsible for reviewing and approving rates. Except for those five states that hhs has determined do not have an effective rate review program, in which case hhs is reviewing rates in that state. So when gu o on line for