The House of Representatives, that is.
Young Daniel E. Choi, M.D., Diplomate, American Board of Orthopaedic Surgery and Chair, Young Physicians Section, Medical State Society of New York went to Washington, DC in November to do whatever he could to protect orthopedic physician’s interests in the fight over “surprise billing.”
His timing could not be more urgent.
“The system is very sick right now,” Dr. Choi explained to OTW. And, for a variety of reasons, the issue of surprise billing has become the battlefield where Dr. Choi and other physicians are pushing back on insurance company encroachment.
In addition to his other accolades, Dr. Choi is a Founding Member and sits on the Board of Directors of the Association for Healthcare Social Media (AHSM) and has created a website dedicated to this cause. This website was created “as a grassroots effort by physicians concerned about insurance companies hijacking surprise billing legislation to increase their profits.”
Dr. Choi is not alone.
Joining him are Dustin Corcoran, CEO of the California Medical Association, and Phil Schuh, Executive Vice President and CFO of the Medical Society of the State of New York and the full force of American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS), led by Dr. Kristy Weber.
Dr. Choi believes that the insurance company’s proposals to address surprise billing will actually push healthcare costs higher, threaten the survival of physician practices, contribute to physician burnout, and ultimately lead to fewer available healthcare clinics for consumers.
Choi, joining with 20 doctors from various specialties, created a video about the upcoming federal surprise billing law decisions. It went viral on Twitter.
It’s a Race to Control Billing – and Patients
“Surprise billing,” as most physicians know, refers to invoices patients receive for out-of-network medical care services that they believed were covered at the time of care but, surprise! find they are not.
Surprise billing is the surprise healthcare issue in this funding cycle.
Everyone, Republicans and Democrats alike, are against it.
“Surprise billing” itself is not the battle. The fight is whether the insurance “fix” or the physician “fix” becomes law.
One compromise piece of legislation on the table is a median in-network rate, with an arbitration option for bills above a certain benchmark.
AAOS is in favor of the Independent Dispute Resolution (the arbitration option) but they maintain that this will be undermined by the median in-network rate, which is determined by insurers.
Most observers expect the fix debate to extend into 2020—if not indefinitely. Which benefits the insurance companies.
