In recent months, Congress introduced a number of bills that address the issue of surprise billing. There is widespread agreement that patients should be protected from surprise medical bills and taken out of the middle of payment disputes. However, the current legislative “solutions” give too much power to health plans. Instead of the discounted in-network benchmark rate solution proposed by many of these bills, MGMA advocates for out-of-network payments to be set by leveraging commercial data from independent sources. When this payment rate is insufficient, an independent dispute resolution process should be utilized to determine fair payment for the physician.

Please take a moment to submit a letter to Congress through our Contact Congress portal and ask your representatives to hold health plans accountable.