[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 108 (Wednesday, June 26, 2019)]
[House]
[Page H5175]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




            PROTECTING PEOPLE FROM UNEXPECTED MEDICAL BILLS

  (Mr. DAVID P. ROE of Tennessee asked and was given permission to 
address the House for 1 minute.)
  Mr. DAVID P. ROE of Tennessee. Mr. Speaker, today our bipartisan 
group led by Dr. Ruiz is introducing Protecting People from Surprise 
Medical Bills Act.
  This commonsense piece of legislation will give patients peace of 
mind that an unexpected medical bill will not leave them in financial 
ruin, while setting up a fair, neutral process to resolve billing 
disputes between insurers and providers or hospitals.
  For far too long, costly unexpected medical bills have caused 
financial stress, negatively impacting patients and their families all 
across the Nation. That is why our bill bans the practice of billing 
patients for unanticipated out-of-network care. It is not fair.
  The patients may be incapacitated in an emergency or may have 
selected a facility that they believe is in network, to be met with a 
costly medical bill, all because one provider was out of network.
  Similarly, providers are between a rock and a hard place because a 
Federal law called EMTALA requires them to provide care regardless of 
their ability to pay. Our bill resolves this by setting up a baseball-
style arbitration between the medical provider and the insurer to 
compensate providers for care.
  A similar New York State law has been proven successful with out-of-
pocket billing records declining by 34 percent after 3 years.
  It is time that all States have these protections. I urge support for 
this approach.

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