{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://buchanan.house.gov/2020/12/buchanan-applauds-deal-end-surprise-medical-billing", "Buchanan Applauds Deal to End Surprise Medical Billing", "2020-12-15", "2020", "2020-12", "Republican", "House", "FL", "Vern Buchanan", "B001260", "buchanan.house.gov", "buchanan", "https://buchanan.house.gov/press-releases", "scraper", "WASHINGTON \u2013 Congressman Vern Buchanan today applauded a bipartisan agreement reached by congressional leaders on legislation to protect patients from receiving surprise medical bills. He called for the measure to be included in an end-of-the-year spending package.\n\nEvery year millions of Americans are socked with exorbitant bills for services they discover their insurance doesn\u2019t cover. This is an all-too-common practice known as surprise medical billing, often stemming from emergency room visits.\n\nThe bill would prohibit out-of-network providers from billing patients without receiving consent 72 hours prior to any appointments or procedures.\n\n\u201cNo patient should ever walk out of a hospital and get blindsided by medical bills they never authorized,\u201d Buchanan said.\n\nThe bill also sets up a process for doctors and hospitals to go to arbitration to resolve billing disputes, removing patients from the billing process.\n\nA study conducted earlier this year found that more than 20 percent of patients had received a surprise medical bill averaging $2,000 each.\n\nThe newly-announced No Surprises Act would ensure for the first time that patients receive a true and honest cost estimate in advance of any scheduled procedures, strengthen transparency requirements for emergency room procedures and reduce patients\u2019 health care costs.\n\nSpecifically, the legislation will protect patients from surprise bills by ensuring they are only responsible for their health insurance plan\u2019s in-network costs. This includes preventing patients from being hit with a surprise bill for care from an out-of-network doctor at an in-network hospital, another common cause of surprise medical bills.\n\nThe Kaiser Family Foundation found that 18 percent of emergency room visits and 16 percent of in-network hospital stays resulted in a surprise bill.\n\nThe No Surprises Act is similar to the Consumer Protections Against Surprise Medical Bills Act which Buchanan co-sponsored and supported when it passed the House Ways and Means Committee in February of this year.\n\n\u201cThis bipartisan proposal should be included in any must-pass government funding bill by the end of the year,\u201d Buchanan said. \u201cPatients and their families need to be protected from these unauthorized and unanticipated costs.\u201d\n\nEarlier this Congress, Buchanan\u2019s bill to provide greater transparency in drug pricing passed the Ways and Means Committee and awaits action before the full House. The Reporting Accurate Drug Prices Act would require all drug manufactures to submit information to the Health and Human Services Department (HHS) on the average sales price of drugs administered under Medicare Part B.\n\nIn 2016, the president signed into law Buchanan\u2019s proposal to preserve Medicare Advantage plans.", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-06-28T00:42:23Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://buchanan.house.gov/2020/12/buchanan-applauds-deal-end-surprise-medical-billing"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.4933019410818815, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}