12 February 2020 House Ways & Means Committee advances surprise billing legislation, bills addressing private equity and hospice On February 12, the House Ways and Means Committee advanced its version of surprise billing legislation, the "Consumer Protections Against Surprise Medical Bills Act" (H.R. 5826), which relies on arbitration to resolve payment disputes between providers and payers and does not include a benchmark rate for payment (unlike solutions passed out of the Education and Labor Committee a day earlier and a bicameral compromise from the House Energy and Commerce and Senate HELP Committees last December). The committee also approved a bill mandating new reporting requirements for private equity firms with a stake in medical providers and a bill providing the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) with new authorities to oversee and penalize hospices that provide poor quality care.
Document ID: 2020-0360 | |||||
