NY Arbitration Critique Puts Spotlight on Surprise Billing Fixes

Proponents of arbitration as a backstop for resolving disputes over surprisingly high medical bills are defending their stance, saying their legislation differs in important ways from a New York approach that was called into question by a recent report.

New York’s law requiring insurers and hospitals to figure out how to pay for unexpectedly large medical bills, and not sticking the consumer with the balance, was first comprehensive action enacted by a state to deal with the problem.

The new report from the USC-Brookings Schaeffer Initiative for Health Policy, found that New York’s use of arbitration to resolve disputes between ...