Lawmakers Voice Concern Over Seemingly Endless Legal Challenges Seeking to Assign New Meaning to the Law
House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ) and Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee Chair Patty Murray (D-WA) sent a letter today expressing their strong support for the Biden Administration’s implementation of key provisions of the No Surprises Act, which established historic consumer protections for patients from surprises medical bills.
The letter was sent to Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Xavier Becerra, Labor Secretary Martin J. Walsh, and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen in support of revised regulations issued by their Departments in response to two District Court decisions that affected the independent dispute resolution (IDR) process.
“As Chairs of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce and the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, we were closely involved in the drafting and negotiation of this legislation. We are grateful for the Departments’ work to implement the No Surprises Act expeditiously and in a manner that is consistent with Congressional intent,” Pallone and Murray wrote. “As we outlined in an October 2021 letter and January 2022 amicus brief, it is our belief that the Departments’ interim final rules released in July 2021 and October 2021 are consistent with Congressional intent.”
In their letter, the Committee leaders express their disappointment in the number of legal challenges being brought by hospitals and providers to the new patient protection law as well as their concern that some providers have sued IDR entities after being disappointed in the arbitration outcomes.
“We applaud the Departments for your hard work to implement this important law, particularly in the face of seemingly endless legal challenges seeking to assign new meaning to the law,” Pallone and Murray continued.
“One, now rejected, challenge sought to delay and strike down the law entirely. It is incredibly disappointing to learn that certain providers have now sued a certified IDR entity, having been disappointed in the arbitration outcomes. Congress clearly specified in the law that the decisions of these entities should not be subject to judicial review. These frivolous lawsuits threaten to stymie the entire IDR process, which in fact is the process providers advocated for in Congress.”
Text of the letter is available HERE.
Original source can be found here
