Surprise Billing Law Hampered by Agency Actions, Lawmakers Say

Republicans and Democrats on the House Ways and Means Committee Tuesday blasted the Biden administration’s implementation of a law intended to prevent patients from being charged high prices in emergencies and other situations where they can’t control who their medical provider is.

The No Surprises Act, passed as part of the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021 (Public Law No. 116-260), has protected patients from being billed out-of-network charges, Ways and Means Chairman Jason Smith (R-Mo.) said at the hearing. But he said the federal government’s “flawed” implementation of the law has created “a tilted dispute resolution process that ...