Representatives urge administration to revise surprise medical billing rule

A bipartisan group of 152 House members today urged the secretaries of Health and Human Services, Treasury and Labor to amend the recent interim final rule known as Part II, implementing parts of the No Surprises Act, to align with the law Congress passed last year. The effort was led by Reps. Tom Suozzi, D-N.Y.; Brad Wenstrup, R-Ohio; Raul Ruiz, D-Calif.; and Larry Bucshon, R-Ind.

“Unfortunately, the parameters of the [independent dispute resolution] process in the IFR released on September 30 do not reflect the way the law was written, do not reflect a policy that could have passed Congress, and do not create a balanced process to settle payment disputes,” the representatives wrote. “…Therefore, we urge you to revise the IFR to align with the law as written by specifying that the certified IDR entity should not default to the median in-network rate and should instead consider all of the factors outlined in the statute without disproportionately weighting one factor.”