The 2019 Texas Legislature followed the lead of the New York Legislature by addressing surprise bills through an arbitration process that takes patients out of the middle by giving physicians an opportunity to challenge out-of-network payments made by commercial health insurance plans through an arbitration process.

The New York system has worked. Click here to learn more.

TOA members can access a summary of the new Texas law, SB 1264, by clicking here.  TOA submitted stakeholder comments to the Texas Department of Insurance on July 15, 2019.

Congress is considering several surprise billing proposals that pertain to ERISA plans during the summer of 2019.

Only one of the measures considered by Congress – H.R. 3502 – represents the correct way to address the surprise billing issue. H.R. 3502 takes the patient out of the middle and gives physicians an independent dispute resolution tool to challenge unfair payments made by commercial health plans.

Click here to learn more about the proposals in Washington from TOA’s president, Adam Bruggeman, MD.