Letter to Congress: Don’t Give Health Plans Too Much Power

The American Medical Association wrote two letters to Congress to shed light on how physicians feel about the current debate in Washington over surprise billing. We, along with 109 other state medical societies and national specialty societies, co-signed this letter to support the AMA’s efforts.

The letters advocate for independent dispute resolution (IDR), a process that would “incentivize health insurers to make a fair initial offer of payment for out-of-network care […] while also preventing bills from physicians or other providers that are outside generally acceptable ranges.”

The most pressing priority is to take the patient out of the middle of physicians and insurers trying to negotiate out-of-network bills. Congress is considering several options to bring that to fruition; however, the options include language that could give health plans too much power to determine physician payments.

The Medical Association has been advocating to ensure that HR 3630 takes the patient out of the middle of out-of-network payment disputes but doesn’t give health insurance companies complete control over what they pay out-of-network physicians.

View the Letter here.