June 25, 2019: MGMA response to Senate HELP plan to lower health care costs

June 25, 2019  

The Honorable Lamar Alexander, Chairman
Health, Education, Labor & Pensions Committee
United States Senate
455 Dirksen Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510

The Honorable Patty Murray, Ranking Member
Health, Education, Labor & Pensions Committee
United States Senate
154 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510

Subject: Lower Health Care Costs Act (S. 1895)

Dear Chairman Alexander and Ranking Member Murray:

On behalf of our member medical group practices, healthcare executives, and other healthcare leaders, the Medical Group Management Association (MGMA) is writing to provide comments on the revised version of the Lower Health Care Costs Act (S.1895) released on June 19. We appreciate that  his Committee and lawmakers in both chambers are working in a bipartisan manner to develop legislation to address important issues such as unexpected medical costs, drug prices, public health, and transparency. There are, however, several changes to the Lower Health Care Costs Act that we believe are necessary to achieve reasonable and workable solutions. We write to comment on specific aspects of the legislation to encourage your reconsideration of two provisions: (1) use of a benchmark payment methodology set at the median innetwork rate in instances of surprise medical bills and (2)  mplementation of a 45-calendar day timeline for practitioners and facilities to transmit medical bills to patients.
 

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