Trump Vows to End Surprise Billing for Health Care Services

In response to Secretary Alex Azar’s recent initiative requiring drug manufacturers to disclose prices to consumers, President Trump explained several guidelines to address and end the concern that is surprise medical billing.

Surprise billing, sometimes referred to as balance bills, occurs when a patient seeks medical services but is unwittingly treated by an out-of-network physician, often a radiologist or anesthesiologist. This is common when a patient is seeking emergency care and in-network providers are unavailable.

“For too long, surprise billings—which has been a tremendous problem in this country—has left some patients with thousands of dollars of unexpected and unjustified charges for services they did not know anything about and, sometimes, services they did not have any information on,” said President Trump in a statement. “They weren’t told by the doctor. They weren’t told by the hospitals in the areas they were going to…We’re going to hold insurance companies and hospitals totally accountable.”

Some of the guidelines to curb surprise billing that have were suggested by President Trump included:

• Prohibiting balance bills in the case of emergent care
• Increased transparency and advance knowledge of the out-of-pocket costs for voluntary services
• Exceptions for when a patient is unable to choose their provider.

He also emphasized, “legislation should protect patients without increasing federal health care expenditures. Additionally, any legislation should lead to greater competition, more choice and more healthcare freedom. We want patients to be in charge and in total control.”

While ending surprise billing has already been a part of the bipartisan effort to decrease costs and improve quality of care, it continues to shift to the forefront of efforts as increasing transparency is a top priority.

“Our initiative to end surprise medical billing is one of many steps we’re taking to fix our nation’s broken healthcare system and to deliver better care, with more choices, at lower costs,” said President Trump.  

—Edan Stanley

Reference:
The White House. Remarks by President Trump on Ending Surprise Medical Billing. 9 May 2019. https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/remarks-president-trump-ending-surprise-medical-billing/. Accessed May 10, 2019