Representatives Kevin Hern (OK-01) and Annie Kuster (NH-02) introduced the Facilitating Accountability in Reimbursements Act (FAIR Act) to harmonize billing practices in off campus hospital outpatient facilities to reflect the site of care.
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“The introduction of this legislation is another important bipartisan milestone in the effort to address anti-competitive hospital practices that drive up healthcare prices,” said Alex Schriver, executive director of Better Solutions for Healthcare.
“This measure will end dishonest hospital billing and lower prices for employers and consumers by ensuring that patients are billed for the services they receive at the location where they receive them. This reform is one of the most important steps we can take to defend patients and consumers, and we urge lawmakers to take action this Congress.”
Dishonest billing is when a hospital secretly reclassifies a doctor’s office it owns as a hospital setting in order to charge more money.
Employers in Indiana rose up and demanded their legislators address hospital dishonest billing, and the Indiana Senate delivered: Legislation ending dishonest billing passed and is headed to the governor’s desk to be signed into law.
Senators Mike Braun (R-IN) and Maggie Hassan (D-NH) introduced The Site-based Invoicing and Transparency Enhancement Act, bipartisan legislation to protect consumers from dishonest billing by corporate hospital systems.
“For too long, hospitals have gamed the system to charge patients and employers more based on the setting of care through exorbitant ‘facility fees,’” said Alex Schriver, executive director of Better Solutions.
“Ensuring fair billing practices is one of the most important things we can do right now to dramatically lower health care costs, and we applaud Sens. Braun and Hassan for introducing key site-neutral payment reforms. Momentum is clearly building in Congress around common-sense solutions to rein in corporate health systems and address the leading role they play in the healthcare affordability crisis.”