A Deal To End Surprise Medical Billing Was Tanked At The Last Minute – By Paul McLeod (Buzzfeed) / Dec 19 2019
Many people on Capitol Hill are blaming one person: Rep. Richard Neal. “There is extreme frustration. This was the deal.”
WASHINGTON — Emergency room patients will continue to be hit with surprise medical bills, despite having health insurance, after Congress left for the year without passing a deal to end the exploitative practice.
President Donald Trump and leaders in both parties have spoken for months about the urgency of ending one of the most glaring loopholes of the US health care system. But Congress did not include any legislation to end surprise medical billing in its end-of-year budget bill, which passed the Senate 71–23.
Democrats and Republicans in the House and Senate had reached a deal to end surprise billing in recent weeks, despite a multimillion-dollar dark money campaign to kill reforms funded by private equity firms that profit from sending surprise bills to hospital patients. It appeared set to be included in the must-pass spending bill.
Then everything fell apart. And people on both sides of the aisle are pointing their finger at one member for tanking the momentum: Rep. Richard Neal, the powerful chair of the House Ways and Means Committee.
“There is extreme frustration. This was the deal. It was vetted. It was signed off on. It was approved. The White House endorsed it,” said one House Republican aide. “That’s when you need to set aside egos and get on board. This was going to be a win for the American people.”
Surprise billing happens when someone goes to a hospital covered by their insurance network only to be hit by often exorbitant bills because a doctor or specialist who works at the hospital is out of network. It’s not an accident. Private equity firms have bought up physician-staffing firms, which has led to an increase in out-of-network billing.
Continue to article: https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/paulmcleod/surprise-billing-deal-richard-neal
Rep. Richard Neal speaks during a news conference about the Lower Drug Costs Now Act on Capitol Hill, Oct. 16.
