From November 9, 2021 post.
Members from the GOP Doctors Caucus sent a letter on Friday to Secretary Becerra, Secretary Walsh, Secretary Yellen, and Director Ahuja expressing concern over the implementation of the departments of Health and Human Services, Labor, Treasury, and the Office of Personnel Management’s Interim Final Rule (IFR) entitled “Requirements Related to Surprise Billing; Part II.”
“The No Surprises Act was the result of two years of bipartisan, bicameral deliberations and negotiation on solutions to protect patients from surprise medical billing and create a balanced process for providers and payors to settle payment disputes. Multiple proposals for resolving this issue were considered, including a benchmark rate, an IDR process, and a blend of both. As a result of this careful deliberation and negotiation, the final law explicitly required an independent entity to consider a broad range of criteria and weigh all relevant factors equally when deciding appropriate payments for out-of-network services,” The Members wrote.
The Members also wrote: “As Members of Congress and health care professionals, we strongly encourage your administration to revise the proposed IFR to align with the statute and congressional intent to protect patients from these negative outcomes. We also request timely implementation of the other patient protections included in the No Surprises Act, like the advanced estimate of benefits and crackdown on inaccurate provider directories. The medical professionals in Congress stand ready to collaborate with your offices to ensure implementation meets statutory requirements before regulations take effect on January 1, 2022.”
Original source can be found here.
