Nancy Bellow: Representatives Need To Support STOP Surprise Medical Bills Act

by Contributor | August 7, 2020 9:39 am

To the Editor:

As we’ve seen over the past six months, our front-line health care workers fight every day to keep us safe. And as most of us already know, when a healthcare emergency strikes, we often do not get to pick and choose the doctors or facilities that will provide us with necessary, sometimes lifesaving, care.

What can make a trip to the emergency room even worse? When you get a bill from your insurance company because the treatment you received was “out-of-network.” Insurance companies are fighting to keep this practicing going by lobbying Congress to support “rate-setting” legislation. Insurance companies are already too involved in health decisions that should be left to doctors and patients.

There is a better way to tackle this problem. It’s called the STOP Surprise Medical Bills Act, and it has more than 30 bipartisan co-sponsors in the U.S. Senate, led by Senator Bill Cassidy, M.D. The legislation establishes a fair and neutral process for an objective third-party to resolve disputes between insurance companies and health care providers. Patients are kept out of the middle and not stuck with unanticipated and potentially financially devastating bills.

We need Senator Schumer and our Congressional representatives to support STOP and protect patients who simply cannot afford the costs and stress come with surprise medical bills.

Sincerely,
Nancy J. Bellow
Oswego

Source URL: https://oswegocountytoday.com/opinion/letters-to-the-editor/nancy-bellow-representatives-need-to-support-stop-surprise-medical-bills-act/

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