MSSNY Raises Strong Concerns with New Surprise Billing Proposals Coming Out of Washington


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MEDICAL SOCIETY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK
865 Merrick Avenue, Westbury, New York 11590-9007
www.mssny.org
Communications Division
Telephone: (516) 488-6100

 

For Immediate Release
February 10, 2020

MSSNY Raises Strong Concerns with New Surprise Billing Proposals Coming Out of Washington

Statement attributable to:
Art Fougner, MD
President, Medical Society of the State of New York 

“New York’s dedicated physicians remain anxious to work with all parties to ensure a fair federal legislative solution to protect patients from surprise out of network bills.  However, far more balance is needed in what has been put forward so far.  The proposal released Friday by the US House Ways & Means provides a few marginal steps forward, but would still hand an enormous gift to already market dominant health insurance companies by tilting the factors in its dispute resolution mechanism towards the insurance industry.  Even worse, it fails to provide meaningful steps to make sure health insurance physician networks are adequate, to help protect patients from finding themselves in the position in a hospital where they are treated by an out of network physician. 

These new proposals remain far different than the comprehensive and balanced measure that was enacted in New York, which not only put in place a balanced dispute resolution system to protect patients, but also put in place new measures to better ensure that health plan networks and out of network coverage was comprehensive.  We urge Congress to revise their proposals to more closely resemble New York’s acclaimed approach, which has had zero adverse premium impact and has saved consumers hundreds of millions of dollars.”

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About the Medical Society of the State of New York
Founded in 1807, the Medical Society of the State of New York is the state’s principal non-profit professional organization for physicians, residents and medical students of all specialties. Its mission is to represent the interests of patients and physicians to assure quality healthcare services for all.

MSSNY Contact:
Roseann Raia
Communications / Marketing
Medical Society of the State of New York
865 Merrick Ave.
Westbury, New York
516-488-6100 ext 302
rraia@mssny.org

 

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