Rep. Frank Pallone pitches change to No Surprises Act arbitration

Tara covers the business of health care. Her stories focus on hospitals, doctors, and how their business practices affect patients — especially when private equity gets involved. She also writes about health insurance and ideas for improving our broken health system. You can reach Tara on Signal at tarabannow.70.

A new proposal in Congress to scrap a surprise billing ban’s controversial arbitration system will need to to survive an onslaught of attacks from provider groups, for whom arbitration has been a gold mine.

After Rep. Frank Pallone (D-.N.J.) unveiled his Lower Premiums, Faster Payments Act on Thursday, it quickly garnered praise from academics and consumer advocates, as well as condemnation from provider groups. It would dismantle the problem-plagued process that’s currently used to resolve disputes between health insurers and out-of-network providers and replace it with a payment system based on median in-network rates.

Pallone, one of the authors of the No Surprises Act, said in a statement that the law has been an “overwhelming success” when it comes to protecting patients from surprise bills.

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