Buried within the nearly 6,000-page Combined COVID-19 Relief and Omnibus Spending Bill signed by President Trump on Sunday is some unexpected but welcome news: the “No Surprises Act.”
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House and Senate leaders announced that an agreement had been reached on the No Surprises Act, which establishes a mediation framework for providers and payers to resolve payment disputes.
The American Hospital Association is offering qualified support for bipartisan, bicameral legislation in Congress that would protect patients from surprise medical bills.
House and Senate committee leaders announced that an agreement had been reached on the
No Surprises Act, which also establishes a mediation framework for providers and payers to resolve payment disputes. Under this agreement, the days of patients receiving devastating surprise out-of-network medical bills will be over, House and Senate leaders said in a
“‘Surprise medical bill’ is a term commonly used to describe charges arising when an insured individual inadvertently receives care from an out-of-network provider.
“This situation could arise in an emergency when the patient has no ability to select the emergency room, treating physicians, or ambulance providers.
“Surprise medical bills might also arise when a patient receives planned care from an in-network provider (often, a hospital or ambulatory care facility), but other treating providers brought in to participate in the patient’s care are not in the same network.”
To allegedly address this,
“(The bill) contains Independent Dispute Resolution (IDR):
“‘An independent dispute resolution process, or IDR…solves the problem of surprise medical bills related to out-of-network care without disrupting the broader market, and without having to involve patients at all.