Don’t let insurers stab them in the back.
The Surprise Medical Bills (SMB) “fix” language rumored to be slipped into the year end spending bill, remains behind closed doors, as of this publication. If any form of benchmarking is passed, Americans will suffer unintended consequences including loss of access to medical care in the middle of a pandemic.
Either benchmarking or compromises relying on an in network median rate grants a small handful of wealthy health insurance companies the right to decrease payments to Covid-19 healthcare heroes. Frontline physicians, critical access hospitals, and hospital employees will be hardest hit. Many will be pushed to close their doors to care.
Physicians prefer accessible and fair Independent Dispute Resolution(IDR), working now in many states both red and blue and large and small. It protects patients while preserving access to care. It doesn’t reward the insurers with more control.
Those pushing to stealthily fix Surprise Medical Bills at the 11th hour by pushing it into a must pass bill are doing so because they had no other way to get it in there. Is this how we want our Congress to treat American patients? Is this how Congress should treat healthcare heroes?
The last time hearings on Surprise Medical Bills happened was 2019. Covid-19 fundamentally altered the landscape of medicine, Americans deserve new and transparent hearings on an issue this convoluted.
Call your lawmakers and tell them to fix Surprise Medical Bills with a fair and accessible IDR. Benchmarking or a compromise relying an in network median rate will hurt American patients and enrich insurers.
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