Biden Administration Should Take Next Step To Protect Patients From Out-Of-Network Bills

In recent years, policymakers have taken strong steps to add more transparency to the health care system. Towards the end of the Trump administration, two rules were implemented to increase price transparency for both hospital services and insurance offerings. To his credit, President Biden has started to enforce and strengthen them.

Equally important was the bipartisan “No Surprises Act”, legislation designed to protect Americans from medical sticker shock by limiting surprise billing and out-of-network cost sharing for most emergency and non-emergency services. These bills were a previously (and surprisingly) common phenomenon when a patient received a bill from an out-of-network provider, even when receiving care at an in-network facility. The process set up in this law protects patients from most of these crazy bills.

But while the new law went into effect at the beginning of the year, it seems the legislation has only been as effective as the way it is interpreted.

Read the full commentary on Forbes.