ASCP Urges Pathologists, Laboratory Professionals to Contact Congress About Surprise Billing

We Need YOUR Help to Fix Flaws in House and Senate Bills

Congress is quickly working to enact legislation this year to protect patients from surprise medical bills, which occur when patients receive unanticipated, often substantial, medical bills for care they thought was covered by their insurance. 
In its current form, the legislation Congress is working on would have providers either receive a payer’s “in-network” rate or, if out-of-network, the local, median payment rate. However, these rates can be insufficient and when coupled with other recent threats to reimbursement, like the massive cuts to the Medicare Clinical Laboratory Fee Schedule, could adversely impact the pathology and laboratory medicine community and undermine patient access to essential medical services.

For this reason, ASCP supports incorporating the following provisions into the surprise billing legislation:

• Establish benchmark rates that are fair to all stakeholders in the private market; benchmark rates should include actual local charges as determined through an independent claims database.
• Establish a fair and independent dispute resolution process to resolve disputes about payments from insurers to unaffiliated providers for services rendered out of network to their beneficiaries.
• Protect patients from out-of-network billing.
• Require insurers to give patients a robust choice of physicians, including pathologists.

Please use the ASCP e-Advocacy Center to urge Congress to fix surprise billing legislation.